Advance Magazine Publishers is an old American media company. The company this year would turn into a Centurion. However, the company landed into a legal battle over the domain name VogueTravels.com.
The publishers have trademarks over the term ‘Vogue’ and have USPTO registrations that go back as far as 1919. It also has with it the domain names Vogue.com and Vogue.in. However, a VogueTravels.com was also operating. The domain name landed on an error page, but there was once an active travel website here.
The panel in a surprise decision canceled the complaint. The court claimed that the domain name in question had a ‘bona fide’ offering of services. Moreover, the court mentioned that the respondent worked in a totally different field and had no cases of deriving benefit from the Complainant’s businesses.
Vogue is a popular magazine brand in India. So much so, that the home domain name of the magazine is Vogue.in. The domain name Vogue.com redirects to Vogue.in/?international.
The publishers themselves operate on an amazing domain name of Advance.com. Advance Magazine Publishers along with Vogue, also owns other media platforms like NewYorker and Wired. It also has substantial stakes in companies such as Discovery, Inc. and Reddit.
You can read the full case here.
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