– James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications
“Brand” and “branding” are the current darlings of the fashionista class. They’re rapidly driving those terms into the realm of cliché by busily associating them with practically everything you can think of.
But in the midst of branding’s 15 minutes of fame, a potentially crippling challenge faces the non-brand
–Dan Kelly, Attorney
In case you did not yet hear the news, ICANN at long last revealed this week the new applied-for strings in the new gTLD program. If you are unfamiliar with what this is, ICANN will be expanding the number of available so-called “generic” top-level domains (gTLDs) for use in Internet domain
–Dan Kelly, Attorney
I have just made the happy discovery that the good folks over at FairWinds Partners, operators of the Domain Name Strategy blog, have another blog called gTLD Strategy. In this post this week, they have hinted that there may be more “.brand” applicants in this round of gTLD applications than
–Sharon Armstrong, Attorney
Today ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as the company that basically runs the Internet, begins accepting applications for generic top level domains. Most users know top level domains such as .com, .org, .edu…and even .xxx. Now, under this new program, organizations can apply to use
–Dan Kelly, Attorney
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board recently issued a precedential decision upholding the Trademark Office’s refusal to register five applications for the mark .MUSIC in connection with a variety of goods and services, holding that .MUSIC is merely descriptive of the goods and services. A PDF copy of the decision is here
–Susan Perera, Attorney
Earlier this week ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approved a major change to top-level Internet domains (TLDs).
Soon we will no longer be limited to the standard 22 top-level domains including .com, .org, and .net. In fact, your brand could soon be its own top-level domain. For
–Dan Kelly, Attorney
Pot luck post today, but all related to the wonderful world of domain names:
A recent domain name decision under ICANN’s Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP Policy), captioned Bin Shabib & Associates (BSA) LLP v. Hebei IT Shanghai ltd c/o Domain Administrator, found reverse domain name hijacking, under some rather interesting, if not questionable circumstances. The Rules that govern the UDRP Policy define Reverse Domain Name HiJacking
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–Dan Kelly, Attorney
A bomb exploded in the domain name aftermarket world on Wednesday. A well-known domain name auction house called SnapNames.com announced that one of its (now former) employees had been bidding as a shill in many online domain name auctions run by the company since 2005. SnapNames has an FAQ page on the matter here.
It is not difficult to decry the many abuses that have gone on in the domaining industry: cybersquatting, typosquatting, domain name tasting, domain name kiting, pay-per-click fraud, and now shill bidding (to name a few). As these abuses tend to make for the juciest news, it is not surprising that some (including trademark attorneys) accuse the whole domain name business (or “industry”) of being dirty. But law, being a generally slow, blunt instrument, has so far caught up with only the first two of the abuses listed above. What is less widely reported is that, for all of its wild-westness, the DN business has policed itself (e.g. cybersquatting, domain tasting) without resort to government intervention. This is as it should be.
Even so, self-policing is also slow to catch up to opportunists, so caveat emptor is the rule of the day in domain name transactions, especially when bidding at an auction, especially an online auction. I recommend reading any auction site’s rules, terms and conditions carefully before engaging in a transaction. Some of these sites will readily represent both buyer and seller, which is a situation well-known to lawyers and real estate agents as a “conflict of interest.” Caveat emptor, indeed.Continue Reading Fraud at Domain Name Auction House
–Dan Kelly, Attorney
I assume that most readers have heard that the universe of Internet domain names may be expanding next year. Instead of being limited to a finite number of relatively mundane top-level domain extensions like “.com” and “.org,” ICANN is planning to allow for the registration of any string of characters to the