Coronavirus related domain names have become the new paradise for scammers and fraudsters. A report by Palo Alto’s Unit 42 researchers published in May found that more than 86,600 domains out of the 1.2 Million newly registered domain names with keywords related to the coronavirus outbreak from March 9 to April 26, 2020 were classified as risky or malicious. On an average, 1,767 such domains...
Ever since the UK decided on Brexit, things have been gloomy for the UK based companies operating in the region of the European Union. A similar confusion has also been caused in the domain market as well with their future hanging. The problem arises with the criteria of holding a .eu domain name. In simple words, in order to have a .eu your company must be based within the territory of...
Plum District was a hyper-local daily deals site created ‘by Moms, for Moms’. It was founded in 2009 by Megan Gardner with an aim of making every mom a ‘momtrepreneur’. It raised a whopping $30 million in funding, with about $10 million in its Series A funding, and the remaining $20 million in December 2011. Off to a great start, it became a leading e-commerce destination with a community of moms...
How often have you heard a UDRP panel deciding against the complainant even when the respondent didn’t even appear. Now on top of that add that not only the respondent won, but the panel also decided that the complainant was Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH). This is what happened with the domain AdviceGroup.com. Advice Group S.P.A. an Italian company filed a UDRP over the domain name...
Little Bean; a chickpea-based, dairy-free ice-cream shop; is re-branding to Little Chickpea after a trademark tussle with the behemoth baby food brand Gerber. The website LittleBean.com now redirects to the new LittleChickpea.com. The case is pretty similar to what changed Olympic Provisions to Olympia Provisions. The restaurateur Micah Camden said that he thought of the name Little Bean a year...
RDNH or Reverse Domain Name Hijacking when the owner of a trademark tries to secure a domain name by claiming a “cybersquatting” case against the owner of the domain. This usually happens when the owner of the domain is a smaller firm or an individual. Paragraph 15(e) of the UDRP Rules defines reverse domain name hijacking as the filing of a complaint in bad faith, resulting in the abuse of the...
So, Fox has filed a trademark for “Ok Boomer”. The television giant probably aims at developing a reality, comedy and/or game show called OK BOOMER. Many others have also filed a trademark on the name. Kevin Yen, a New Yorker, also filed for a brand of clothing. A Pittsburgh-based company filed for a brand of stickers and decals. William Grundfest also claimed the name for a series of live stage...
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case that whether a generic name along with a generic TLD is applicable for a trademark protection. The Supreme Court took the matter under its purview after there were differences between Trademark institutions and lower courts regarding whether Booking.com is a trademark or not. It all began in 2012, when Booking.com applied to get stylized versions...
In a bid to help wallets, browsers and decentralized applications integrate blockchain domains, Unstoppable Domains has launched a grant of $ 1 Million. The step is majorly focussed towards making blockchain domains more accustomed in the Cryptocurrency environment. The wallet service providers are the major beneficiaries here as it is easier to do transactions with a blockchain domain than...
Italy continued its blocking sprew with the addition of 6 more websites to the list. Italy’s Companies and Exchange Commission (CONSOB) announced that more websites offering financial services without the proper authorization have been blocked. These websites are: Waltika Partners Ltd ();CobraCFD Ltd (www.c0bracfd.com and www.cobracfd.biz/it);Alfa Financial, Zurich Corporation and lsystems LTD...
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer. In addition, my thoughts and opinions change from time to time I consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind.
My posts on Domain Magazine are intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot and manifestation of the various memes running around my brain, and as such any thoughts and opinions expressed within out-of-date posts may not the same, nor even similar, to those I may hold today.
