Tag: icm registry

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Disputes National Arbitration Forum News

Virgin mogul Richard Branson wins disputed dot-XXX domain name

Richard Branson

Richard Branson

Business magnate Richard Branson filed a complaint (Case Number: 1423689) over the domain name RichardBranson.xxx with the National Arbitration Forum in January.

Now a single-member panel has ordered the name transferred to Richard Branson, having established all three elements required under the ICANN Policy. 

First, the domain name is identical to the RICHARD BRANSON mark.  Second, the respondent lacked rights and interests in the disputed domain name.  And lastly, the domain name was registered and used in bad faith.

“As an additional independent ground demonstrating bad faith and as discussed above with regard to “rights and interests,” Respondent apparently registered the at-issue domain name even though he does not qualify to register a domain name on the .XXX register,” wrote Paul M. DeCicco, Panelist.

The full details of the ruling have been released and can be read online here.

There are now several UDRP cases involving dot-xxx domain names since the domain went public. 

The list of cases that are active as of today include: baylorgirls.xxx, utsystem.xxx, femjoy.xxx, kayjewelers.xxx, finansbank.xxx, foxstudios.xxx, borcelik.xxx, borusanholding.xxx, denizbank.xxx, valero.xxx and markafoni.xxx.

(Image of Richard Branson via Virgin.com)

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News

Apple secures SteveJobs.xxx domain

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

Apple has secured the dot-xxx adult domain SteveJobs.xxx (Whois), preventing anyone else from using the name of the company’s late co-founder.

This week, Apple officially took control of the domain through the registrar Corporation Service Company (CSC), a company that helps protect many of the world’s most valuable brands and patrols the internet for incidences of brand abuse.

The acquisition of SteveJobs.xxx comes the same week the company officially revealed itself as the owner of RememberingSteve.com, a web address that has been re-directing to Apple’s online memorial since early October when Steve Jobs passed away.  

Apple has owned RememberingSteveJobs.com for months and now the Whois record for RememberingSteve.com shows Apple as the registrant.

Surprisingly, to this day Apple does not own the web addresses of Steve Jobs in dotcom, dotnet, or dotorg.  SteveJobs.com is owned by a resident of South Korea according to Whois records, while the dotnet is owned by the company InternetWebDesign.com Inc.

SteveJobs.org is up for sale by its owner, who also owns SteveJobs.es.

(Image of Steve Jobs unveiling Apple products in Sept. 2010 via Apple.com)

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Disputes News WIPO

eCommerce giant markafoni first company to file .XXX domain dispute

markafoni

The Turkish private shopping club markafoni has become the first company to file a .XXX domain dispute with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the domain markafoni.xxx.  According to WIPO, the case commenced on December 29.

WIPO Case Number (D2011-2298) was filed by VIPINDIRIM, the company behind markafoni, which was featured last July in TechCrunch, after the company was valued around $200 million following 70 percent of its shares being acquired by Naspers.

According to WHOIS records, the domain <markafoni.xxx> was registered on December 6, by Yasin Kaplan who resides in Istanbul.

December 6 marked the first day of general availability of .XXX domains.  

Per the ICM Registry, “General Availability is when members of the adult Sponsored Community get regular, resolving names on a first come, first served basis. Non-members of the adult Sponsored Community can also get “Non-Resolving” names.”

Although the ICM Registry has gone to unprecedented lengths to put an end to cybersquatting by suspending abusive registrations such as BusinessWeek.xxx, there will be other names that fall into a gray area that will get sorted out at arbitration.

As of today, only one other .XXX domain case has been filed under the UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) — Case number 1421851 commenced on December 30, with the National Arbitration Forum over the domain name heb.xxx.

Discussion: NamePros