Category: Disputes

Categories
Disputes National Arbitration Forum News

After years of being called HuffPo, news website wins dispute over HuffPo.com

huffpo

For years, The Huffington Post news website has often been referred to as ‘HuffPo’ for short.

The only problem was, the site founded by Arianna Huffington in 2005, didn’t own the web address HuffPo.com; Pauta’s International SA did and it used the domain to send unsuspecting visitors to third-party websites.

Huffpo.com however, will soon enough be re-directing users elsewhere.  AOL Inc., which acquired The Huffington Post in 2011, has won the rights to huffpo.com after filing a dispute with the National Arbitration Forum.

AOL also won rights to the typo domain names mapqwest.net and moivefone.com.  All three domain names have been ordered transferred by Judge Harold Kalina (Ret.), Panelist.

You can read the details of the decision here: Claim Number: FA1108001402910

Discussion: Business Insider

Categories
Disputes National Arbitration Forum News

Warner Bros. Entertainment wins dispute over ThunderCats.com domain name

ThunderCats Cartoon Network

With the return of ThunderCats back to television, the domain name ThunderCats.com has been ordered transferred to Warner Bros. by a single member panel of the National Arbitration Forum.

The respondent in the domain dispute was Equity LLC / Name Admin of New York.

On the point of “Registration and Use in Bad Faith”, although the Honorable Charles K. McCotter, Jr. (Ret.) who served as the panelist did not find that Equity LLC had ever attempted to sell the disputed domain name, McCotter did find that the domain had a competing nature because Equity LLC had posted links to websites and businesses which sell action figure goods in competition with Warner Bros.

Of course, there is much more to the decision than just the point of “bad faith”.

You can read all the gory details of the decision through the information published online here.

Categories
Disputes National Arbitration Forum News Trademarks Video Games

ModernWarfare3.com domain name battle ends with an Activision triumph

Modern Warfare 3

Modern Warfare 3

The domain battle between Anthony Abraham and Activision over ModernWarfare3.com has come to an end.

A three-member panel of the National Arbitration Forum has ordered the domain name transferred.

Earlier this year Anthony Abraham launched an unofficial fan site for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, attracting thousands of Facebook fans in a matter of days.

In late June, Abraham began lashing out at Activision, the publisher of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, in a series of statements and videos that appeared on the ModernWarfare3.com website, and throwing support instead to Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 3.

Activision eventually filed a complaint (read here) which revealed the identity of the Battlefield 3 fanboy.

According to the decision posted online, Abraham argued that the term “modern warfare” is generic and is not monopolized by Activision.

Activision was required to prove that modernwarfare3.com is identical or confusingly similar to its trademark, that Abraham has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain; and the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

The three-member panel ruled in Activision’s favor today, having established all three elements required under the ICANN Policy.

Here is a copy of the decision by the National Arbitration Forum so you can read all the details.

Discussion: Game Informer, Joystiq, NeoGAF, CVG, GamesIndustry.biz, MCV, Ubergizmo, The Escapist, G4, Eurogamer.net, 1UP, Tiscali, Gamespot, FZ, Kotaku and Gaming Union

Categories
Disputes National Arbitration Forum News

Lady Gaga wants the domain name rights to LadyGaga.org, files complaint

Lady Gaga

Pop singer-songwriter Lady Gaga who topped Forbes’ annual Celebrity 100 list as the most powerful celebrity is going to battle over the web address ladygaga.org, according to a recent complaint filed with the National Arbitration Forum.

Not only has Lady Gaga mastered the music scene, but she’s dominated the web and social media scene, and has more Twitter followers than anyone else in the world (at the time of this posting, 12,886,773 followers on @LadyGaga).  

Though Lady Gaga works on behalf of non-profit organizations and donates money, she may be planning her own official non-profit organization.  Because of all her philanthropy, it comes as no surprise that a domain dispute has been filed for the .org web address, a domain that’s intended for non-profit organizations.

The domain dispute (case No. 1403808) has been filed with the National Arbitration Forum. 

Lady Gaga domain dispute

Because the National Arbitration Forum doesn’t publicly identify complainants on its website until a decision has been reached, the official complainant isn’t known at this time, but it’s safe to say it’s either Lady Gaga or her production team, Mermaid Music LLC, which is the registrant of LadyGaga.com.

The dispute which has been filed against oranges arecool XD (the current registrant), may be an open and shut case for the NAF panel.

As I wrote about back in early June, oranges arecool XD owns and operates other celebrity domains and websites including blakelively.com, jennifer-hudson.com, beyoncegallery.net, mirandakerr.com, alilarter.net and dozens more.

Ladygaga.org is currently a Lady Gaga fan site.

Categories
Disputes News WIPO

Busy month for Apple in domains, files dispute over AppleiPods.com and more

ipod

Apple has had a busy month in domain names, between winning a dispute over iPods.com and revealing itself as the owner of ApplePico.com, the company has continued its activities filing 12 more disputes over different domains including AppleiPods.com with the World Intellectual Property Organization, and even registering for the first time AppleClassiciPod.com.

In August the company filed the following disputes with WIPO.

Case Number D2011-1327: wwitunes.com, wwwitunes.com

Case Number D2011-1387: appleproductsonline.com

Case Number D2011-1388: applebigdiscount.com, applesdiscount.com, applessales.com, applestorewell.com 

Case Number D2011-1390: appleipods.com, iphhone.com, iphine.com, ipodhack.com, macbookpros.com

In addition to filing the domain disputes, the company registered AppleClassiciPod.com, a domain name that surprisingly had never been taken.

Here’s a look at the Whois record details for AppleClassiciPod.com.

Registrant:
        Apple Inc.
        Apple Inc.
        1 Infinite Loop
         Cupertino CA 95014
        US

Domain Name: appleclassicipod.com

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
        Registrar Homepage: ‘http: //www.markmonitor.com

    Created on…………..: 2011-08-17.
    Expires on…………..: 2012-08-17.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-08-18.