Organisation: WHOIS

As progress continues on the Trademark Clearinghouse proposals, rights protection mechanisms continue to occupy the minds of trademark counsel. At the INTA leadership meeting, the two organisations leading the applicant list elaborated on their plans for the expanded domain space, and their approach to trademark protection.

12 November 2012

ICANN looks set to modify its own proposals for the operation of the Trademark Clearinghouse for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and adopt key aspects of alternative plans drawn up by stakeholders. The compromise will allow the internet governance body and its stakeholders to press ahead with implementing the Trademark Clearinghouse.

09 November 2012

Nominet, the UK domain name registry, has opened a three-month public consultation period for a new service that it intends to launch called ‘direct.uk’. This new service will allow domain name registrations at the second level directly under the TLD ‘.uk’. The key driver behind the launch of the direct.uk service is enhanced online security for UK businesses and consumers.

06 November 2012

Following ICANN’s Toronto meeting this month, in addition to the specifics of the Trademark Clearinghouse, additional trademark protection remained an area of contention. While the Intellectual Property Constituency has outlined improvements to the current rights protection mechanisms, other ICANN stakeholders are now voicing opposition, resulting in an uphill battle for the proponents of change.

29 October 2012

ICANN, which has been under considerable pressure from governments and law enforcement agencies around the world to tighten up WHOIS data accuracy, appears to be moving steadily closer to finalising an amended Registrar Accreditation Agreement aimed at tackling the problem. The new agreement should introduce an obligation for registrars to verify certain customer data to be listed in a domain name's WHOIS records.

11 October 2012

Inter Ikea Systems BV has won a case filed under the UDRP in relation to the domain name ‘ikealittle.com’. Among other things, the panel held that, by registering the domain name at issue and offering links to third-party goods directly competitive with those of the complainant, the respondent was diverting traffic from the complainant's ‘ikea.com’ domain name. Interestingly, the complainant filed and won 17 UDRP cases in 2011 alone.

07 March 2012

In <i>AFNIC v Francelot</i>, the Court of Appeal of Versailles has overruled a decision of the Versailles Court of First Instance in which the latter had ordered AFNIC to pay compensation to Francelot for failing to ‘freeze’ the domain name ‘francelot.fr’ upon its request. The court held that, although, under its Charter, AFNIC could check whether a registrant had breached any of its contractual obligations, it had no obligation to do so.

13 December 2011

In <i>Germanotta v oranges arecool XD</i>, singer Stefani Germanotta, known as Lady Gaga, has lost her bid to gain control of the domain name ‘ladygaga.org’ on the basis that it was pointing towards a non-commercial fan site. Interestingly, the respondent owned around 700 other ‘celebrity’ domain names.

09 November 2011