Cathie Jung may have the world’s smallest waist, but that didn’t stop her from filing a court lawsuit over the domain CathieJung.com. Jung, who has worn a corset every day for the last 12 years, wanted to transfer the name’s ownership away from a corset company. The owner was using …
Read More »gTLD applicants get nasty, file trademarks to deter competitors
In the United States, domain extensions cannot be registered as trademarks. That hasn’t stopped some gTLD applicants in other countries in order to gain an upper hand over competitors, however. One notable example is Constantine Roussos, who has filed some 20 trademarks in hopes of preventing anyone else but him …
Read More »Paris Hilton files domain dispute
Paris Hilton, a celebrity and heiress to the Hilton fortune, has filed a dispute with the WIPO over the domain paris-hilton-perfume.net. She contends that the domain violates the “Paris Hilton” trademark. This dispute was more than likely filed by one of Paris Hilton’s legal representatives. This is a good thing, …
Read More »ChatRoulette caught in domain mess-up
It’s always great when sites launches new features. Of course, this might not be the case with a site like ChatRoulette. The company announced this week the launch of new ChannelRoulette and LocalRoulette sub-channels. Unfortunately, it forgot to register the relevant domains. Two domainers registered ChannelRoulette.com and LocalRoulette.com several months …
Read More »Microsoft obtains patent for "Cybersquatter Patrol"
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded Microsoft a patent today for an investigative tool called “Cybersquatter Patrol.” The tool is designed to generate lists of typosquatting and cybersquatting domains, then figure out who owns them and how the domains generate revenue. This isn’t the company’s first foray into the …
Read More »Is Yahoo typosquatting Google?
Blogspot.com, a Google-owned blog hosting service, is one of the most-visited websites on the Internet. According to domain blogger Elliot Silver, Yahoo is taking advantage of this by typosquatting with a very similar domain: Blogsport.com. Right now the domain doesn’t point anywhere. In fact, Yahoo’s owning of a popular typo …
Read More »Does the U.S. government want to seize The Pirate Bay’s domain?
bittorrent site. Despite a government raid, large fines and jail time, the site is more popular than ever. But according to TorrentFreak, the United States government planned an operation in coordination with ICANN to seize thepiratebay.org. As part of a campaign called ‘Operation In Our Sites,’ the government has already …
Read More »Verizon wins control of VerizonWireless.com
In a huge victory for Verizon, the company has won a dispute it filed with the National Arbitration Forum over the domain VerizonWireless.com. The company markets itself as “Verizon Wireless,” so having this name is very valuable. This case is interesting because the arbitration panel ruled that the domain was …
Read More »Cable giant Charter loses domain dispute
Charter Communications, an American ISP and cable company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, lost an arbitration dispute this week over the name charterbusiness.com. Charter claimed the domain violated a number of its trademarks and alleged that the owner was using it in bad faith because. The name …
Read More »French publisher loses domain dispute
Usually big companies win domain disputes. In this instance, however, French publisher Editions Milan tried to abuse the WIPO domain arbitration system and ended up screwing itself over in the process. It all started when American soldier Steve Hill registered kokeshi.com in 2001. He registered the single-keyword domain because of …
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