American Airlines has won a dispute it filed with the National Arbitration Forum over the domain advantagemiles.com. AA claimed the domain was being used in bad faith and was confusing similar to its AAdvantage frequent flyer program.

Whereas some domain transfer requests seem meaningless, I think the airline had good reason to demand the name. “Advantagemiles.com” sounds very legitimate to me and probably confused a number of American Airlines customers.

That being said, let’s just hope the airline chooses to improve the quality of its flights from now on instead of its domain portfolio.

Photo | Flickr

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Two large companies, Disney and Coca-Cola, have won domain disputes this week.

Disney won the names diseny.com and dsiney.com after filing a trademark complaint with the National Arbitration Forum. The registration of these names clearly constitutes typosquatting. Because the owner did not want to take part in the proceedings, Disney won.

Coca-Cola also won cokerewards2009.com after filing a dispute with the WIPO. The beverage company claims the registrant was using the name in bad faith to impersonate Coke and collect personal information from customers.

Continue reading: Disney, Coke win domain domain disputes

In yet another dispute regarding its Bing.com search engine, corporate giant Microsoft has won the domain wapbing.net.

The Redmond company claimed the name violated its trademark for “Bing” and filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum. Microsoft also claimed that the registrant intended for the domain to be deliberately confusing and was thus using it in bad faith.

According to the case documents, the name was registered by Xin Net Technology Corporation, a Chinese domain register notorious for its spam activities.

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

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Entertainment and resort company Disney has won a dispute over the domain disneycondo.com. In a dispute the corporation filed with the National Arbitration Forum, it claimed the name violated its trademark on the term “Disney.”

Although famous for its movies, Disney has a major stake in the vacation industry so it’s no surprise that it would want the name. Naturally, the NAF ruled in favour of the company. The registrant did not respond to the dispute, so coming to a decision must have been very easy for the panel.

Source | Domain News

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MasterCard has won a domain dispute filed with the WIPO involving the domain mastercard-brasil.com.The name has been taken from Pattishall McAuliffe, the registrant, and transferred to the firm.

In its complaint, MasterCard claimed the name violated its trademark and that the registrant was using it to collect the personal information of customers who had actually intended to visit the real MasterCard site.

It’s clear that the domain violates MasterCard’s trademark, but I doubt that McAuliffe was collecting personal information because according to the case documents, the name was inactive. How can you collect information from a domain without a website?

Photo | Flickr

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Tech giant Microsoft won a dispute filed with the National Arbitration Forum over the domain bingnews.org this week. The company alleged that the name, which was registered by Prabhjot Singh, violated the trademark of its Bing search engine.

Microsoft won the case because of its trademark on “Bing” and because the registrant did not respond, but was this domain really worth going after? It is true that companies must pursue violations in order to keep their marks, but is going after each and every one necessary? In this instance, Singh didn’t appear to be using the name in bad faith. The domain itself isn’t very good, either. I doubt either party could profit from it.

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When NBA star Chris Bosh sued cybersquatter Luis Zavala over the domain Hoopology.com, the judge awarded him the name plus $120,000 in damages. Because of Zavala’s likely inability to pay the judgment, however, the judge has handed over his entire domain portfolio to Bosh. It consists of some 800 sports and celebrity-related names.

What does the basketball player intend to do with the names? He says he only wanted his domain back and is willing to transfer any of other 800 names– many of which infringe on the rights of other stars– to their rightful owners for free. Granted, there have been mutterings by some domainers that Bosh’s intentions are less than honest, but we’ll see what happens.

Photo | carlosan

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Universally-recognized travel site Travelocity.com won a dispute this week filed with the National Arbitration Forum over the domain tavelocity.com. The company famous for its gnone claimed the name was confusingly similar to its own brand and won the case.

In the domain industry, registering a name like tavelocity.com is known as typosquatting. People who register common misspellings of trademarks are hoping to cash-in on users who haven’t honed their typing skills. While less common now than in the past, it is still very prevalent. However, trademark owners are increasingly cracking down on these type of registrations.

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

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In yet another domain dispute victory for Google, the WIPO has ruled against a cybersquatter and in favour of theMountain View company in a case involving the domain googlenetbiz.com.

As is generally the norm, Google contended that the domain violated its trademark and that it was being used in bad faith. The registrant, an Indian national by the name of Racha Ravinder, might have been able to put up some form of defense. He put the nail in the coffin with his response to the complaint, however, stating, “I will sell my domain googlenetbiz.com for USD 50,000 only, do you buy it.”

By submitting this statement, Ravinder unknowing committed cybersquatting. If the WIPO didn’t have a reason to hand the name over before his response, it did after.

Source | Express India
Photo | Flickr

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Hewlett-Packard recently won a dispute filed with the National Arbitration Forum over the domain hpserver.com. HP, a company well known for its IT equipment, argued that the domain violated some of its many trademarks.

In addition, the company claimed the registrant was using the name in bad faith, advertising competitors through advertisements. Because HP proved its case the the domain owner did not contest the complaint, the server manufacturer won its case.

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

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Clothing retailer Lacoste won the domain lacostebuy.com in a recent dispute it filed with the WIPO. The name was used by a Chinese citizen, Liu Dong Ping, to sell counterfeit merchandise.

For this reason and because of trademark infringement, Lacoste requested that it be given ownership of the name. In light of this evidence and the failure of the registrant to respond to the complaint, the arbitration panel ruled in favour of the clothing company. Trademark infringers just can’t win these days, can they?

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

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The Russian division of business periodical Forbes has won a dispute over the name Forbes.ru. In addition to the name, a Moscow arbitration court has awarded the company $300,000 USD in damages. This is the largest compensation ever awarded to an American company in a Russian court case.

Because Forbes did not initially own Forbes.ru, it was forced to launch its magazine on ForbesRussia.ru last November. Grigory Punanov, chief editor, stated:

We fought for a long time for the legal right to use the domain name Forbes.ru… I hope the ruling will enter legal force and that our site will soon be available at that address.

Forbes will now be faced with the challenge of informing visitors and subscribers of its new web address. This could easily eat up all of its $300,000 settlement.

Source | The Moscow Times

Continue reading: Forbes nails cybersquatter for $300,000