Max Levchin’s Slide Loses Domain Name Challenge
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
Widget company loses UDRP arbitration for 128 domain names.
PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and his internet widget company Slide have lost a UDRP decision to obtain the domain SlideTV.com and 127 other associated domain names.
Slide has raised over $50 million to date, and the last round was rumored to have been raised at a valuation north of $500 million. The company provides widgets for use on sites such as Facebook, and some of these widgets include video.
The company inquired about buying the domain SlideTV.com from the owner, who declined. The owner then registered the remaining 127 domains in the dispute, including myslidetv.com, slidetvafrica.com, slidetvamerica.com, and slidetvwine.com.
The one person panel determined that SlideTV.com and its variants are not confusingly similar to the company’s Slide mark. Although the panelist didn’t consider legitimate interest in the domain and bad faith registration, he did write:
I find that the domain names at issue are not identical or confusingly to Complainant’s SLIDE mark and, in any event, Respondent’s January 16, 2006 registration of slidetv .com predates Complainant’s date of first use in commerce of its registered SLIDE mark. Respondent’s subsequent registration of 127 more “slidetv” variant marks after contact with Complainant to discuss purchase of the slidetv .com>domain name cannot be deemed bad faith registrations because Respondent had the right to expand on his original registration which trumped Complainant’s use in time.
Further Reading:
- Shipping Company Loses Challenge for NOL.com Domain Name
- Bill Clinton Loses Domain Name Challenge
- Company Behind “SkyCam” Sports Cameras Loses Domain Dispute
Tags: max levchin, National Arbitration Forum, slide, udrp
