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Your Source for Domain Dispute
News and Information |
Friday,
November 11, 2005,
Vol. 6 No. 11 |
Welcome to Domain-News, a complimentary
news service of the National Arbitration Forum. The National
Arbitration Forum is one of the
world's largest neutral administrators of arbitration services and one
of four ICANN-approved providers. We invite you to visit our Web site
at www.arbitration-forum.com.
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In
This Issue
Emmitt J. Smith, III v.
EMMITTSMITH.COM
New
Survey Reveals Vulnerabilities in DNS Servers
Go Daddy Launches Domain Name Auction
Recent
Decisions
Mast-Jaegermeister AG v. The Penalty Box Inc.
Complainant, Mast-Jaegermeister AG, filed a claim against
Respondent, The Penalty Box Inc., the registrant of the
<jagermeisterpoker.com> domain name. Complainant claimed that the
<jagermeisterpoker.com> domain name was confusingly similar to Complainant’s
JAEGERMEISTER mark. The Panel found that Complainant held several trademark
registrations with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the
JAEGERMEISTER mark. Respondent’s domain name was confusingly similar to
Complainant’s registered mark, and Respondent’s nonuse of the disputed
domain name amounted to passive holding. Thus, the Panel concluded that
Respondent did not have rights or legitimate interests in the
<jagermeisterpoker.com> domain name, and Respondent’s registration of the
domain name constituted bad faith registration and use pursuant to the
Policy.
Mast-Jaegermeister AG v. The Penalty Box Inc., FA 547812 (Nat. Arb.
Forum Oct. 13, 2005).
Crandell
Addington v. Domain Guy
Famous professional poker player and poker hall of famer,
Crandell Addington, brought a claim against Respondent, Domain Guy, the
registrant of the <crandelladdington.com> domain name. Complainant claimed
that Respondent’s <crandelladdington.com> domain name was identical to
Complainant’s common law CRANDELL ADDINGTON mark. The Panel found that
Complainant provided sufficient evidence to establish common law rights in
the CRANDELL ADDINGTON mark. Respondent’s domain name was identical to
Complainant’s mark, and the disputed domain name resolved to online gambling
websites and poker websites associated with Complainant. Thus, the Panel
concluded that Respondent did not have rights or legitimate interests in the
<crandelladdington.com> domain name, and Respondent’s registration of the
domain name constituted bad faith registration and use pursuant to the
Policy.
Addington v. Domain Guy, FA 560842 (Nat. Arb. Forum Oct. 25, 2005).
Vivid
Entertainment, LLC v. Digital Pulsar
Complainant, Vivid Entertainment, LLC, commenced an action
against Respondent, Digital Pulsar, asserting that the <vividcams.com>
domain name was confusingly similar to Complainant’s VIVID mark. Respondent
claimed that Complainant failed to provide evidence of ownership of the
VIVID mark because the trademark registration listed Vivid Video, Inc. as
the owner of the VIVID mark. The Panel held that Complainant failed to show
a relationship between itself and Vivid Video, Inc.
Thus, Complainant’s claim was denied.
Vivid Entm’t, LLC v. Digital Pulsar, FA 542007 (Nat. Arb. Forum Oct. 25, 2005).
Emmitt J. Smith, III v. EMMITTSMITH.COM
All-time leading NFL rusher Emmitt Smith, formerly of the
Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals, filed a claim against Respondent,
EMMITTSMITH.COM, the registrant of the <emmittsmith.com> domain name. The
Panel held that Complainant had common law rights in the EMMITT SMITH mark
based on the fame and reputation associated with his NFL career, and that
the <emmittsmith.com> domain name was confusingly similar to Complainant’s
mark. The Panel also found that Respondent did not have rights or legitimate
interests in the disputed domain name and was using the domain name in bad
faith because Respondent was presumably earning commissions for redirecting
Internet users to third-party commercial sites. Respondent's registration of
the <emmittsmith.com> domain name was either deleted or expired during the
course of the proceedings and, thus, Complainant sought to redeem the domain
name under the new Expired Domain Deletion Policy (EDDP). This was the first
decision issued by the National Arbitration Forum utilizing the EDDP.
Smith v. EMMITTSMITH.COM, FA 555486 (Nat. Arb. Forum Oct. 26, 2005).
Taylor
Vaughn v. ROCKETJOB.COM
Complainant, Taylor Vaughn,
commenced an action against Respondent, ROCKETJOB.COM, asserting that
Respondent’s <rocketjobs.com> and <rocketjobs.net> domain names were
identical to Complainant’s ROCKET JOBS mark.
Respondent registered the <rocketjobs.com> and <rocketjobs.net>
domain names in 1999. Complainant did not use the ROCKET JOBS mark until
2004. Thus, the Panel held that there was no conceivable way that Respondent
could have had knowledge of Complainant’s mark at the time Respondent
registered the disputed domain names. Accordingly, the Panel denied
Complainant’s claim.
Vaughn v. ROCKETJOB.COM, FA 558212 (Nat. Arb. Forum Nov. 2, 2005).
E-Practice
New Survey Reveals Vulnerabilities in DNS
Servers
A recent security
survey performed by The Measurement Factory, an Internet measurement
firm, suggests that as many as 84% of the 1.3 million DNS servers studied
may be susceptible to pharming attacks.
eWeek.com reports that these vulnerabilities exist primarily because the
servers were enabled to provide unrestricted recursive name services, which
can transmit information about the name server to “arbitrary queries on the
Internet.” According to Infoblox Inc., the survey’s sponsor, this oversight
can open up the servers to various malicious third-party attacks, including
cache poisoning, denial of service attacks, and pharming, which redirects
Internet users to fraudulent websites.
“Simply offering recursion does not alone make it
possible to poison your cache, but you're at significantly higher risk,”
said Cricket Liu, vice president of architecture at Infoblox. “Frankly, I
wasn't expecting these numbers to be so high. I guess my view was skewed.”
Additionally, the survey revealed that nearly 20% of
the servers are using outdated software that may heighten exposure to
malicious attacks.
ZDNet UK reports that the BIND software used for domain name resolution
is outdated for a fifth of the DNS servers. Servers using the older BIND
software are especially susceptible to pharming attacks. Third parties are
able to hack into the servers operating on outdated software and replace
numeric IP addresses of legitimate websites with those of fraudulent sites.
Thus, Internet users may unwittingly access phony websites, where they are
prompted to divulge personal information such as passwords and social
security numbers.
Although these findings may be alarming, Infoblox has
outlined several steps to minimize the risk of server attacks, including
running the most recent versions of domain name server software and using
firewalls or router-based filters to ensure that only authorized traffic is
allowed between the domain name servers and the Internet.
In
The News
"884443." Becomes Popular Domain Name
CRI Online (October 10, 2005):
Prior to the official announcement of the newly recalculated height of Mount
Everest, mountain climber Zhou Xingkang had already registered the domain
names 8843.org.cn and 8844.org.con. Zhou said that after researching the way
in which the previous measurement was conducted, he believed the researchers
over estimated the official height by four to five meters due to the failure
to account for the snow and ice covered summit. Zhou says that the
8844.org.cn domain name will be used as the official website for a
mountaineering foundation.
Go Daddy Launches Domain Name Auction
WHIR News (October 12, 2005):
GoDaddy.com, a web hosting and domain name registration provider, announced
the official launch of an Internet auction site for use by customers seeking
to either bid on or post a domain name for sale. Bob Parsons, president and
founder of GoDaddy.com, says the company seeks “to provide customers with a
safe, secure, and easy-to-use marketplace” for consumers to buy and sell
domain names.
Domain Name
Once Owned by Bin Laden Now Becomes Charitable Cause
All Headline News (October 17,
2005): Ayinde O. Chase
reports that the official Bin Laden family domain name,
saudi-binladin-group.com, whose registration expired on September 11, 2001
and subsequently acquired by Shimpo LLC, will be auctioned off for charity.
In keeping with the company’s mission of inspiring global peace, Shimpo LLC
will donate the proceeds from the sale of the domain name to aid the victims
of manmade and environmental disasters.
Milkdudz
vs. Hershey's...Going Beyond the "Sweet Tooth" This Halloween
EMediaWire (October 27, 2005): For
entrepreneurs Kiersten Wall and Stephanie Schulte, this Halloween won’t be
as sweet. The co-founders of Milkdudz ‘not your mommaz nursing wear,’ a
fashion company providing designs and apparel for breastfeeding mothers,
have recently found themselves on the other side of Hershey Confectionary
Company’s efforts to protect their beloved MILK DUDS brand name. Although
the MILK DUDS trademark has not been registered for use in connection with
apparel products, Hershey’s claims that third-party consumers will become
easily confused between the chocolate covered caramel candy and the
un-related women’s apparel company. Milkdudz ‘not your mommaz nursing wear’
seeks “to bring hip nursing accessories to the forefront of fashion” so that
nursing mothers can “regain their sense of style, sexiness and confidence.”
Beware of
.eu domain scammers, report warns
Net Imperative (October 31, 2005):
A new report published by domain name firm Hostway warns potential
registrants of domain names containing the new “.eu” generic top-level
domain. The “.eu” domain name is being offered to the 450 million people in
the twenty-five nations comprising the European Union. Although the official
registration has not yet opened, the firm is opening online pre-registration
immediately. Paul Halfpenny, product manager for Hostway, said, “People do
need to beware of unofficial vendors offering pre-registrations as they
could miss out, or be ripped off.”
Upcoming
events
|
November
10-11, 2005 |
WIPO
offers its Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC)
Workshop on Arbitration of Intellectual Property Disputes and on WIPO
Domain Name Dispute Resolution in Singapore. |
|
November
12-14, 2005 |
ABA/IPL
offers its 2005 Fall Leadership Meeting in Ft. Myers, Florida. |
|
November
30-
December 4, 2005 |
ICANN
Meeting in Vancouver, Canada. |
|
December
5, 2005 |
IPO offers
its 16th Annual Conference on Patent and Trademark Office Law
and Practice (PTO Day) in Washington, DC. |
|
December
5-6, 2005 |
INTA
offers its Trademarks: The Importance of Evidence and Other Burning
Issues Forum in Berlin, Germany. |
Let
the National
Arbitration Forum know of
your upcoming events for listing in Domain-News. Send event listing
information to: domain-news@arb-forum.com.
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