Starcom Mediavest Group v. Mediavestw.com, No. 10-4025, 2010 WL 3564845 (September 13, 2010) In rem actions over domain names are powerful tools. A trademark owner can undertake these actions when it identifies an infringing domain name but cannot locate the owner of that domain name. In a sense, the domain name itself is the defendant. [...]
Archive for the ‘Cybersquatting’ Category
Righthaven seeks domain name transfer – relief that is not called for under the Copyright Act
September 7th, 2010
4 Comments
Tactics suggest overreaching on more than just copyright grounds. News broke over the Labor Day weekend that Righthaven, that enterprise set up to file copyright lawsuits over alleged infringements of articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, sued Nevada senate candidate Sharron Angle. The complaint [PDF] contains two claims for copyright infringement over allegations that Angle [...]
Trademark holder not entitled to domain name registered years before
May 12th, 2010
Comments Off
Arizona State Trailer Sales, Inc. d/b/a Little Dealer Little Prices RV v. World Wide RV, No. FA1003001315658 (Nat’l Arb. Forum, May 7, 2010) Startups in the process of selecting a company or product name are often frustrated to see that someone else, years ago, registered the .com version of their newly thought-of name. Similarly, companies [...]
UDRP loser did not commit fraud on USPTO by saying it was exclusive user of mark
April 15th, 2010
1 Comment
Salu, Inc. v. Original Skin Store, Slip Copy, 2010 WL 1444617 (E.D.Cal. April 12, 2010) This is kind of a wonky trademark/domain name case. So if that’s not in your wheelhouse, don’t strain yourself. Plaintiff sued defendant for infringement of plaintiff’s registered trademark. Defendant moved for summary judgment, claiming that the asserted trademark registration was [...]
Record companies win $1.92 million in case against individual file sharer
June 18th, 2009
1 Comment
There has only been one copyright infringement case filed against an individual accused of illegally sharing music files over the internet to actually go to trial. That’s the case of Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas. In October 2007, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota returned a verdict of $222,000 [...]
Scope of Electronic Communications Privacy Act may not be so narrow
June 15th, 2009
4 Comments
Brahmana v. Lembo, No. 09-106, 2009 WL 1424438 (N.D. Cal. May 20, 2009) Plaintiff former employee Brahmana sued his former employer Cyberdata, claiming that Cyberdata violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (at 18 U.S.C. 2511) (“ECPA”). Brahmana claimed that Cyberdata used a keylogger to intercept the username and password for Brahmana’s personal email account. Cyberdata [...]
Cybersquatter hit with maximum penalty
March 10th, 2009
8 Comments
Citigroup, Inc. v. Shui, 2009 WL 483145 (E.D. Va. Feb. 24, 2009) Court enjoins use of citybank.org, orders defendant to pay $100,000 in statutory damages and to pay Citibank’s attorneys’ fees. Defendant Shui registered the domain name citybank.org and established a site there promoting financial services, sometimes using the mark CITIBANK. The real Citibank, armed [...]
Verizon obtains damages, injunction against regsitrar under ACPA
January 8th, 2009
Comments Off
[This is a guest post by contributor Brian Beckham] Plaintiff Verizon California, Inc. (Verizon) recently obtained a default judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, in its favor against Defendant, the registrar OnlineNIC, Inc. (press release). Despite repeated attempts, Verizon was not able to serve notice on [...]
Useful tool for locating UDRP decisions
October 16th, 2008
1 Comment
Enrico Schaefer of Traverse Legal sent me a link to a tool called DomainFight.net, which promises to be very useful. It’s a simple interface to allow one to easily search for decisions under the UDRP issued by both the National Arbitration Forum and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Try it out!
Statutory damages for copying competitor’s catalog on website
June 30th, 2008
Comments Off
Silver Ring Splint Co. v. Digisplint, Inc., 2008 WL 2478390 (W.D.Va. June 18, 2008) Silver Ring and Digisplint are competitors in a niche industry, each producing and selling fine jewelry quality finger splints made of gold and sterling silver. Silver ring sued Digisplint for copyright infringement alleging that Digisplint copied text from Silver Ring’s 1994 [...]
