Horrible Domain Dispute Decision Impacts Short Brandable/Acronym Domain
Posted: March 6, 2012 Filed under: Domain Industry, Domain Questions | Tags: trademark, udrp Leave a comment »If you pay enough attention to UDRP decisions on a regular basis, you’ll notice a trend. Simply put, anything goes. Despite the general guidelines of UDRP being the same for each case, each panelist interprets those guidelines differently in different cases.
Unfortunately, that leads to some very poor decisions handed down. Read the rest of this entry »
Will I Need to Protect My Trademark in Many New TLDs?
Posted: February 24, 2012 Filed under: Domain Questions | Tags: new TLDs, trademark 1 Comment »Most of the heat has died down from opponents of the new TLD programs, but many are still uneasy about new TLDs. The proverbial “fear of the unknown” is at work here, since there has never been a time when hundreds of new global TLDs would be released at once.
While some industry associations like the RIAA had concerns about security of extensions and piracy, much of the criticism leveled at the new TLD program was about trademark protection. As it is, many larger companies defensively register hundreds if not thousands of domains and often still find themselves in domain disputes over clear trademark-infringing domains. Read the rest of this entry »
Your Seemingly Generic Domain Can Be Lost in a Trademark Dispute
Posted: February 24, 2012 Filed under: Domain Questions | Tags: trademark 1 Comment »In our last article, we discussed a case where a small company Wapple managed to win a trademark battle against Apple. As said in that article, decisions like those are nice to see, as Wapple did definitely have rights to their name per the facts of the case.
Unfortunately, quite often there are decisions in domain disputes (UDRP) where the owner can lose the domain. Just like the Apple vs. Wapple decision was surprising, these generic domain decisions can also be surprising but obviously in the other direction. Read the rest of this entry »
Apple Just Lost a Trademark Dispute Against Mobile Web Developers Wapple – Here’s Why
Posted: February 23, 2012 Filed under: Domain Industry, Domain Questions | Tags: branding, trademark 1 Comment »As Techcrunch reported today, Apple just lost a 5 year long trademark dispute against mobile web development company Wapple. Apple originally filed the lawsuit in 2007, the year it first released the iPhone.
If you don’t look at any further details of the case, the outcome might seem surprising. With Apple now so ingrained in the world’s mobile device economy, it would seem obvious that a mobile development company named Wapple must be trying to ride their coattails. Delve further into the case however and there’s a good reason Apple didn’t win. Read the rest of this entry »
Post-Death Celebrity Domain Squatting is Deplorable and Not Legitimate Domain Investing
Posted: February 14, 2012 Filed under: Domain Industry, Domain Questions | Tags: trademark 1 Comment »Another sudden and tragic celebrity death occurred two days ago when the music world lost Whitney Houston. Unfortunately, one of the stories highly reported on since her death has been about the hundreds of Whitney Houston domains registered trying to capitalize on the press of her death.
It should go without saying that this is a despicable practice. Sadly, it happens without fail every time a popular celebrity passes away. There may be a few registrations among them by people intending to honor the celebrity and in no way profit from the domain, but most of the domains are found being monetized or being auctioned off on eBay. There is simply no way to defend the ethics of taking advantage of such a tragedy. Read the rest of this entry »
Be Selective When Protecting Your Trademark With Domains
Posted: December 13, 2011 Filed under: Domain Questions | Tags: trademark, typos 6 Comments »Trick question: How many different domains are there that could infringe upon your trademark?
Answer: Nearly infinite. I say “nearly” because domains do have an upper length limit. So technically there aren’t an infinite amount of domain possibilities, but an astromically high number.
To protect your trademark 100% without a doubt, you would have to get all of them. That’s registration fees times nearly infinite domains, totaling an amount of money not even in existence. In other words, not even Apple could afford to do this.
So first and foremost, get the thought of 100% protecting your trademark in the domain space out of your mind. Read the rest of this entry »
