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 being used in bad faith because it had no content. The respondent (domain owner) also failed to respond to the complaint.

Respondent is not making an active use of the domain name as the disputed domain name resolves to a website displaying only a “Network Error” message and no original content. The Panel finds that Respondent’s failure to actively use the disputed domain name indicates bad faith registration and use .

It wouldn’t surpise me if the arbitration panel was biased towards Verizon to begin with. People reserve domains all the time without adding the content to them. Of course, one could also argue that is more fair for Verizon to have the name because it actually plans on using it.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Verizon wins control of VerizonWireless.com

After filing a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum, Microsoft has won control of the domain xboxonline.com. The Redmond company claimed the owner registered the name in bad faith and that its use violated Microsoft’s trademark on “XBox.”

It’s no surprise that the NAF agreed with Microsoft. The company further alleged that the registrant was using the name to sell Xbox-related goods, which Microsoft says were heavily advertised and sold in high volumes around the word. The registrant failed to respond to the complaint.

This is a big victory for Microsoft. A lot of companies have domain names containing product named followed by “online,” so the name xboxonline looks very legitimate. Its use by a third party likely confused many consumers.

Microsoft won a similar dispute with the NAF earlier this month involving 18 Xbox domains.

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Microsoft has managed to win back a full 18 domain names it managed to prove were abusive. All the domain names were centred around Microsoft’s Xbox 360 product. The company requested the transferral of the domain names to its own management from the National Arbitration Forum, which ruled in its favour. The domain names were:

wirelessxbox.com, xbox2accessory.com, xbox-360-accessories.com, xbox360-accessories.com, xbox-360-accessory.com, xbox360-accessory.com, xbox360gamerentals.com, xbox360gamesreviews.com, xboxwirelessheadset.com, x-box-accessories.com, xboxaccessories.net, xboxaccessory.com, xboxadapters.com, xboxmemory.com, xboxwirelessadapters.com, xboxwirelesscontrollers.com, xboxwirelessheadsets.com e xbox360wirelesscontrollers.com.

The forum ruled that the domain names contravened the Xbox trademark and were registered in bad faith - not to mention that they were also platforms to advertise and sell competitor products via pay-per-click advertising. Microsoft is now the owner of these domains so one battle down, many more to go…

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Abusive X-Box domains transferred to Microsoft

Corporate giant Microsoft won a complaint it filed with the National Arbitration Forum over seven domains: bingcamera.com,bingfinancing.com,directorybing.com,drugstorebing.com,girlsbing.com,marketingbing.com and mediabing.com.

The company claimed that the domains were confusingly similar to its Bing search engine trademark. The registrant, Yaoxin Liu, did not contest Microsoft’s claims.

Personally, I don’t see why Liu registered the names in the first place. What do drug stores, girls, and financing have to do with a search engine? This is just another case of a foolish domainer thinking that just because a domain contains the name of a valuable product it is valuable.

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Microsoft wins Bing domain names

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

Continue reading: American Airlines wins domain advantagemiles.com

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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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
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Continue reading: Travelocity victorious in domain dispute

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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Data collected from a number of arbitration panels, including the WIPO and National Arbitration Forum, show that cybersquatting may be on the decline. Last year saw a 9% decline in the number of cybersquatting cases filed overall, a three-year low.

Unfortunately, this decrease does not necessarily mean the number of cybersquatters has gone down. Instead, complainants are saving money by filing for multiple domains at once. The actual number of domains disputed before panels has actually increased.

According to the WIPO and NAF, 90% of cases last year were decided in favour of the complainant.

Continue reading: Cybersquatting may be on the decline

Google recently won a complaint it filed with the National Arbitration Forum over the domain googlemapsrealestate.com. The search giant claims the owner was using the name to operate a Google Maps knock-off and that it violates Google trademarks.

The domain hasn’t be transferred yet and the site is still live. It is an imitation of the recently launched real estate feature on Google Maps. It shows property available in Australia, all the while attempting to look at exactly like Google.

I honestly don’t see why the domain owners in these disputes go so far to irk corporate lawyers when they could invest their time elsewhere and stay out of legal trouble. I doubt the Google Maps knock-off got that much traffic, either.

Continue reading: Google wins domain dispute

Between modeling expensive lingerie and selling beauty products, the busy girls at Victoria’s Secret managed to find time to file a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum, claiming rights to the name victoriassecretpromotion.com. The retailer claimed the domain is confusingly similar to its trademark.

The name was registered early last year and according to the complaint, the registrant used it “to divert Internet customers from Complainant’s website to Complainant’s competitors.” The original owner did not respond to the dispute and thus Victoria’s Secret was granted the domain.

In June of last year, the company made news when it won a similar dispute at the WIPO over victoriassecretangelcreditcard.com.

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Continue reading: Victoria's Secret emerges victorious from domain dispute

Google has lost a complaint it filed with the National Arbitration Forum requesting ownership of Groovle.com. The Mountain View company argued the domain was confusingly similar to “Google,” but the three-person panel thought otherwise. Out of 65 cases filed with the forum, this is only one out of two the company has ever lost.

Groovle.com is owned by Canadian entrepreneurs Jacob Fuller and Ryan Fitzgibbon. The site offers a customized version of Google search where users can upload a photo to use as their start page. “We thought it would be a cool feature to have a nice photo of friends, family etc., every time you launch your web browser, instead of the very plain Google.com and Yahoo.com page,” Fitzgibbon said.

Source | PRNewswire

Continue reading: Google loses dispute over Groovle.com