Judge: There Can Only Be One “Hot Russian Brides”
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
Matchmaking company wins rights to domain name.
Retired New York State Supreme Court justice Ralph Yachnin has ruled that only one company has rights to the term “Hot Russian Brides” in web addresses.
Acting as an arbitrator for National Arbitration Forum, Yachnin found in favor of internet company Romantic Tours, Inc, which operates HotRussianBrides.com. The company was awarded the domain name “HotRusianBride.com”. Notice the typo of Russian and the singular version of “Bride”. I suspect this domain name got a lot of traffic since the typical person looking for a Russian bride online can’t spell very well.
Believe it or not Romantic Tours, Inc. was awarded trademarks for both “Hot Russian Brides” and “HotRussianBrides.com” The company didn’t claim any additional rights to “Russian Brides” beyond hot ones, so presumably you could start a web site SexyRussianBrides.com or CheapRussianBrides.com. Just stay away from hot ones.
Someone should let Hotels.com know that it should use this trademark to bolster its argument that Hotels.com is more than just a descriptive name.
Further Reading:
Tags: udrp
There can be no doubt that this is a descriptive name. The respondent should have won even without submitting a response.
It’s fair use just like the UDRP for CheapAutoInsurance.com.
Judge: There Can Only Be One ?Hot Russian Brides? – http://tinyurl.com/l8avw7
"this domain name got a lot of traffic since the typical person looking for a Russian bride can’t spell very well" http://tinyurl.com/l8avw7
As as fanciful, or unique word mark, “Hot Russian Brides” is not purely generic, and begins to take on additional character (trademarkable) with the addition of the adjective “hot”.
Like “Incredible Cars” (not generic) is quite different from “Cars” (generic) by itself.
-> “The company didn’t claim any additional rights to “Russian Brides”. Russian Brides is purely generic. Makes perfect sense. Sounds like exactly the right type of distinctions were being made.
http://tinyurl.com/l8avw7 Judge: There Can Only Be One “Hot Russian Brides”
I don’t think “Hot Russian Brides” has acquired secondary meaning unlike “Hot Wheels” which was heavily marketed by Mattel and deserving of exclusivity.
Sickening and unbelievable. I guess the old man is not up to speed on things.
For more insight into Hot Russian Brides, watch the latest episode of Rescue Me – hysterical.
Someone should let Hotels.com know that it should use this trademark to bolster its argument that Hotels.com is more than just a descriptive name.
I’m not following your logic here? The trademark is stated as for Hot+Russian+Brides[+.com] with no additional rights to “Russian Brides” beyond hot ones.
Given “Russian Brides” is category defining never mind “Brides” how does this help hotel.com?
This bodes poorly for my website
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[...] bad enough that Romantic Tours, Inc. has convinced three panels to hand over domain names based on its trademark for “Hot Russian Brides”. [...]