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.

Continue reading: Microsoft wins dispute over bingnews.org

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

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

Continue reading: HP wins domain dispute

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.

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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.

Photo | Flickr

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

American web media giant and ISP AOL has won a dispute at the National Arbitration Forum over the domain 4ngadget.com. AOL claimed the name violated the trademark of its gadget blog Engadget.

At first glance, but two may not seem confusingly similar, but because “4″ is located right next to “e” on most keyboards, some visitors to Engadget probably ended up at 4ngadget.com by mistake. AOL asserts that because the registrant displayed PPC advertisements on the site, he or she was essentially profiting from typo-prone Engadget users . This is commonly known as typosquatting.

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

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Dell recently won a domain dispute it submitted to the National Arbitration Forum over the following names: dellgaming.com, dellvideogames.com, dellvideogaming.com, and dellconsole.com.

Naturally, Dell complained that the above names violated its trademark. It also accused the registrant, Patrick McDonough, of using them in bad faith because of a number of click-through ads run on the domains.

The registrant failed to respond to the complaint, so Dell won by default. Then again, even if McDonough had responded, I doubt he would have gotten very far. It would be very hard to convince an arbitration panel that a name like dellgaming.com didn’t infringe on the company’s trademark.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Dell wins several names in dispute

Janet Jackson has won a domain dispute submitted by her representative, Stephen J. Strauss, to the National Arbitration Forum. The name in question is rhythmnation1814.com, which she claims violated her trademark on the album name “Rhythm Nation 1814.”

The arbitration panel ordered the name be transferred to Jackson. It is probably a good thing she did not show up to the NAF in person, otherwise she might have risked another wardrobe malfunction.

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Janet Jackson wins domain arbitration case

Award-winning actress Kate Hudson submitted a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum this week over the domain KateHudson.com. She is asking that the name be transferred to her.

The registrant is Fei Zhu, a Shanghai resident. He has owned the name since 2006, but it will be hard for him to prove he isn’t using the name in bad faith.

Kate Hudson is best known for her roles in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Bride Wars, and Almost Famous.

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Kate Hudson initiates battle for KateHudson.com