by Traverse Legal, reviewed by Enrico Schaefer - July 21, 2008 - k. Cyber Squatting and Domain Dispute News
A decision on a preliminary injunction motion by Finance Express in the Finance Express v. Nowcom Corp. case has come down in favor of Finance Express. The court found that Finance Express would have been irreparably harmed if Nowcom was allowed to continue to register domain names containing Finance Express’s trademarks, to use those domains to redirect to a site housing misleading press releases to convince customers to use Nowcom, to “keyword stuff” by using Finance Express’s marks in its metatags, and to use “keying” to trigger banner ads when users search for Finance Express’s products. Finance Express v. Nowcom Corp., 2008 WL 2477430 (C.D. Cal. 2008).
Another preliminary injunction was issued in WWP, Inc. v. Wounded Warriors, Inc. WWP sued Wounded Warriors for trademark infringement, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices because it registered the woundedwarriors.org domain name. WWP’s motion for preliminary injunction was granted as to the domain name, but WWP could not enjoin Wounded Warriors from using WOUNDED WARRIOR because WWP’s trademark, according to the USPTO, requires the disclaimer of the terms “wounded warrior project” that are printed in its registered logo. WWP, Inc. v. Wounded Warriors, Inc., 2008 WL 2773953 (D. Neb. 2008).
John at Uplain.com has posted about his problems with a cybersquatted domain that is similar to his 4ei.com domain up for sale on TDNAM. A domainer himself, John recognizes the importance of and value in registering generic marks and not typographical errors that will confuse consumers with the marks of trademark holders.
TechNewsReview has an interesting account of cybersquatting’s impact on the online counterfeit drugs market. According to the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines, counterfeiters use many domain names to hide their identity. This makes it difficult for trademark holders to get to the person behind the infringing domain names.
MarketWatch has the most recent press release from the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse and its recent Brand Abuses and Internet Governance forum held on July 17 in New York.
The Lawrence Journal World and News has an editorial on Kansas University’s recent trademark infringement suit against joe-college.com’s use of the JAYHAWKS mark. The majority of the article centers on KU’s trademark dilution claims.
Time Magazine has a post on a trademark dispute between WeeMote, a television remote control for children registered in 2000, and the Nintendo Wii’s remote control. Though Nintendo does not use the term “Wiimote” in its advertising or branding, Fobis, the owner of the WEEMOTE mark, claims that the use of “Wiimote” on the internet has diluted its trademark’s source-identifying function. Fobis has contacted several retailers to request that they remove “Wiimote” from their advertising and metatags.
TechRadar has posted on a topic that we have previously discussed: the domain dispute over narnia.mobi. The verdict on this case is now due and it will be interesting to see whether the registration of the mark for the purposes of giving a child an email address will be seen as a bad faith intent to profit.
MarketingWeb has a good post on some simple steps that businesses can take to protect their marks from cybersquatting.
As a founding partner of Traverse Legal, PLC, he has more than thirty years of experience as an attorney for both established companies and emerging start-ups. His extensive experience includes navigating technology law matters and complex litigation throughout the United States.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by attorney Enrico Schaefer, who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a practicing Business, IP, and Technology Law litigation attorney.
