domain disputes Archives – Page 3 of 3

Nearly 1,000 domain disputes have been filed with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, since the beginning of 2011, with many cases getting attention across the web like the case of Facebook which filed a complaint over 21 separate domains and won.

Here’s a look at some of the more recent disputes filed that include companies ranging from Google to The California Milk Processor Board which filed a complaint over the domain name momgotmilk.com.

GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft – gea.com
GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, one of the largest system providers for food and energy processes with about EUR 4.4 billion revenue in 2010 according to its website has filed a domain dispute over the three-letter domain name gea.com. Gea.com was first registered back in 1995 and is currently owned by G.E.A Design. The complainant uses geagroup.com for its company website. Although it may seem impossible that the company could win gea.com, you will be surprised. In 2003, GEA Group won the three-letter domain gea.biz.

TPI Holdings, Inc. – autotrade.com
Autotrader.com and Auto Trader are trademarks of TPI Holdings, Inc. TPI Holdings is no stranger to WIPO having filed nearly two dozen cases since 2000 with most involving the keyword “trader”, not “trade”. Its most recent cases came in 2010 when it won the transfer of autotraderleaseguide.com, cycletradermagazine.com, and cycletradermagazines.com. Well known domain investor Garry Chernoff is the current owner of autotrade.com. Garry Chernoff made headlines in 2011 with top dollar sales including gamesforgirls.com at $500,000 and bluejeans.com for $150,000.

The California Milk Processor Board – momgotmilk.com
The California Milk Processor Board is the owner of the Got Milk? trademark. The CA Milk Processor Board currently owns about 40 domain names according to DomainTools, which include gotmilkchocolate.com and cowabduction.com. It also owns and operates gotmilk.com, a website that receives thousands of visitors a month according to Compete. In 2010 the CA Milk Processor Board won a number of domain names after the respondent failed to reply. Among the names handed over were gotalmondmilk.com and gotnutmilk.com.

Wikimedia Foundation Inc. and Google Inc.
Unlike the cases of autotrade.com and gea.com, Wikimedia and Google seem to have more legitimate claims. Wikimedia is going after the domains wikiipedia.org, wikipediia.org, and wikippedia.org. Google is going after ad-words.mobi. Wikimedia won cases earlier this year over additional typo domains wekipedia.com and wikkipedia.org. A rough estimate by Compete, shows that 2 of the 3 typos actually get traffic in the hundreds each month.

To see some of the latest WIPO UDRP cases, visit the WIPO website.

Zynga goes after ZyngaGiftcards.com and ZyngaWorld.com domain names

Zynga has filed two domain name complaints concerning zyngagiftcards.com and zyngaworld.com with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization.

The complaints were filed today for ZyngaWorld.com and yesterday for ZyngaGiftcards.com.

Zynga’s Domain Dispute Track Record

Zynga has had no problem winning domain disputes filed using the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, better known as UDRP.

In all previous cases, the domain names were transferred from the respondent back to Zynga. The list of domain names includes zynga-chips.com, zynga.cc, zyngachips.com, zyngapoker.com, buyzyngachips.net, cheapzyngachips.net, chips4zynga.com, yourzyngachips.com, and zyngachips4sell.com.

As TechCrunch reported in March 2010, Zynga rolled out gift cards at a number of major retailers in the U.S. Though Zynga refers to them as “game cards“, they are essentially gift cards which can be used for in-game currency to buy the items you want.

Zyngagiftcards.com is currently registered to Joanna Hewett according to Whois Records, and has been registered since December 2009. Zyngaworld.com is registered to David Cahill of Australia.

Oddly enough, Zynga doesn’t own zyngagamecards.com and hasn’t filed a dispute over the domain as of yet, even though it refers to its “gift cards” as “game cards”.

The company also doesn’t own zyngaecards.com, online “game cards” that can be purchased and sent to users with a personal message. What’s even stranger, is the domain name isn’t even registered at the time of this story, despite the number of abusive registrations the company regularly encounters. But given Zynga’s success at WIPO, hopefully people will learn some lessons, and avoid these types of registrations.

Though the company will likely win these domain disputes and have the names transferred, they might not be as lucky with the trademark dispute over Blingville, which so far has backfired after Blingville responded with a lawsuit, and thousands have lined up to test and play the soon-to-be released Facebook game.

[Update 1: On March 21, 2011, the WIPO panel ordered the domain name zyngaworld.com transferred to Zynga. The dispute for zyngagiftcards.com was terminated, after the owner agreed to turn over the name to Zynga.]