NameDepot.com, Inc., a start-up unheard of until recently, has filed a trademark application for a technology called “RealRegistrant” to, “to obtain information about the owner or registrant of a domain name when the WHOIS information is obscured by a domain name WHOIS Privacy or Proxy service” For those too lazy …
Read More »Microsoft wins xboxonline.com domain
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 …
Read More »Yahoo obtains Flicker.com domain
Yahoo’s Flickr.com is the most popular photo sharing site online, but for years the site has been missing out on traffic from users who misspelled the name as “Flicker.com.” According to changes in the name’s WHOIS records, Yahoo now has control over it. According to technology news site Softpedia, acquiring …
Read More »Abusive X-Box domains transferred to Microsoft
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 …
Read More »Changes to .eu domains and use of symbols: domain registrations in "bad faith"
New criteria to reject abusive .eu domain registrations has been established by the European Court of Justice. According to reports, a clause for using special characters has been exploited, in particular by Austrian company Internetportal und Marketing GmbH. Using the “&” symbol, the company managed to register 33 generic trademarks …
Read More »Should you file a copyright for your website?
If you design a website or write content for for it, you are entitled to all the benefits of the intellectual property. Although the vast majority of webmasters never become involved in copyright disputes, sometimes website owners ask if they should file a copyright for their work. In short, no. …
Read More »Academy Awards takes aim at Go Daddy
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, better known as the Academy Awards, gave Go Daddy something far different from an Oscar this week: a 134-page lawsuit for cybersquatting. Here’s the catch: the lawsuit doesn’t accuse Go Daddy of cybersquatting. Rather, it is seeking millions in damages because the …
Read More »Apple, Gucci win domain disputes
Apple won an important victory with the WIPO this week after it was given control of the name itunes.com.mx. I’m sure Cupertino lost quite a bit Mexican traffic to this domain and owning it will help it protect the Apple brand. The company is also the first multinational corporation to …
Read More »Candidate in Sheriff's election files cybersquatting lawsuit
Ed Teal, a Republican candidate in the Marshall County, Alabama Sheriff’s election, has filed a cybersquatting lawsuit against his opponent, Sheriff Chief Deputy Doug Gibbs. He alleges that the incumbent purposely registered some 19 domains, such as VoteEdTeal.com and EdTealforSheriff.com, to hinder his use of the Internet in the election. …
Read More »Using Copyrighted Material
Previously, I explained some of the areas of concern regarding the copyright of one’s own website, but there is another important facet of copyright that you should consider. Excluding social media sites, the expectation for a website is that the content belongs to the website owner. While there are certain …
Read More »