Debevoise & Plimpton secures cybersquatting domain name

Debevoise & Plimpton, a prominent New YorK City based law firm, was at odds with a domain name that was trying to cybersquat its name.  The firm then went on to Namecheap for the resolution of the issue, but after its unsupportiveness Debevoise had to approach the court.

The infringing domain names here were Debevoise-law.com and Debevoise-laws.com. Debevoise & Plimpton original website is at Debevoise.com

Many people had received email from people claiming to be from Debevoise & Plimpton, and with the email Id ending in the infringing domain names. To an entity not extremely familiar with the law firm, a confusion is most likely. The emails as evident in all cybersquatting cases was trying to access sensitive information from the victims.


Debevoise filed a lawsuit in Virginia. The lawsuit was filed there as it is the home of Verisign, the registry for .com domain names. After months of legal battle Debevoise has finally won the complaint and the court ordered Verisign to change the domain name’s ownership from the Defendant to the Complainant, i.e., Debevoise & Plimpton.


Discussion

  1. Larry Colt Avatar
    Larry Colt

    This case illustrates the legal consequences of cybersquatting, which is the practice of registering domain names that are similar to existing trademarks with the intention of profiting from them. Debevoise & Plimpton, a law firm, had to take legal action against the owner of two domain names, Debevoise-law.com and Debevoise-laws.com, that were confusingly similar to their website, Debevoise.com, and were being used to impersonate the firm and phish for sensitive information. After a legal battle, the court ordered the registrar, Verisign, to transfer ownership of the domain names to the firm. This case serves as a reminder for domain sellers to avoid registering or buying domain names that are similar to existing trademarks, as it can lead to legal disputes and financial consequences.

  2. David Blake Avatar
    David Blake

    Cybersquatting is am major issue for big companies as well as legal firms which have a very strong network of clients around the globe. These are the most vulnerable places for a cyber-squatter as they can demand huge ransom and instead sell their organizational data at huge prices. It totally thrashes the legitimacy of such organizations.

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