Ascentive, LLC v. Opinion Corp., 2001 WL 6181452 (E.D.N.Y. December 13, 2011) Plaintiffs sued gripe site pissedconsumer.com for trademark infringement and other forms of unfair competition. The court denied plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction. It found, among other things, that defendants’ use of plaintiffs’ trademarks as subdomains (e.g., ascentive.pissedconsumer.com) was not likely to cause confusion. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘domain names’
Use of trademark in gripe site subdomain was not likely to cause confusion
December 20th, 2011
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Court won’t let marijuana activist change his legal name to njweedman.com
September 1st, 2011
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In re Robert Edward Forchion, Jr., 2011 WL 3834929, (Cal.App. 2 Dist. August 31, 2011) A long time marijuana activist (who now self-identifies as a “marijuana capitalist”) asked a California court to legally change his name to match the domain name of his website — njweedman.com. The court denied the request. The court gave three [...]
Righthaven seeks domain name transfer – relief that is not called for under the Copyright Act
September 7th, 2010
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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
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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
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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 [...]
Kentucky Supreme Court: gambling domain names did not have standing
March 23rd, 2010
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Com. ex rel. Brown v. Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Ass’n, Inc., — S.W.3d —, 2010 WL 997104 (Ky. March 18, 2010) Back in 2008 the Commonwealth of Kentucky took an extraordinary step in its battle against online gambling. It filed an action in state court seeking to take over 141 domain names that the [...]
Cybersquatter hit with maximum penalty
March 10th, 2009
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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
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[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 [...]
Disclaimer in trademark registration sinks UDRP action
December 18th, 2008
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Ideation Unlimited, Inc. v. Dan Myers, Case No. D2008-1441 (WIPO November 12, 2008). A trademark owner who notices that someone else has registered a domain name incorporating the owner’s mark can file an arbitration action under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP for short). This often serves as a quicker and less expensive [...]
Useful tool for locating UDRP decisions
October 16th, 2008
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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!
