Archive for the 'Policy & Law' Category


Olympic Committee sues guy it won UDRP against

USOC claims person continues to infringe on its trademarks.

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has filed a lawsuit (pdf) against Alan Bachand, an individual with whom the organization has a history when it comes to domain names.

Back in 2009 the USOC objected to Bachand’s use of the domain name OlympicsBestHotels.com to pitch hotels for the Vancouver Olympics. It ended up filing a UDRP against Bachand and won control of the domain.

Now the USOC is objecting to his use of the Olympics trademarks on a number of other sites, including SuperHotelRooms.com, 14sb.com, and LuxurySuperBowlHotels.com.

USOC says it reached out to Bachand about the infringing use, but he hasn’t made all of the changes it requested.

Its suit claims that Bachand is violating the Olympic and Amateur Sports Act and the Lanham Act.

In the UDRP all Bachand lost was his domain name. With a lawsuit, he could face financial penalties if he loses.



Chicago Tribune wants to take down “Occupy” sites

Sites claim to be news for the 99%.

The Chicago Tribune Company has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization over “occupy” web sites using its brand.

The complaint targets occupiedchicagotribune.org and occupychicagotribune.org, the former of which is a web site that states “We’re proud to have no affiliation whatsoever with the 1% Chicago Tribune or the Tribune Co.”.

The site states:

The Occupied Chicago Tribune is an independent media source for those who do not see their struggles and views represented in the mainstream press. We created this paper to provide an outlet for reporting, commentary and analysis on the growing Occupy movement, its unique application in our city and the struggles of the 99%.

These “occupiers” are going to flip out even more against the man when they learn about trademark law.

The Occupied Chicago Tribune also links to similar sites, including Occupied Wall Street Journal and Occupied Oakland Tribune.



Jeweler sues Oversee.net for cybersquatting

Jeweler files claim over six domain registrations.

Jewelry company Tacori Enterprises has sued Oversee.net in U.S. District Court for cybersquatting.

Tacori alleges (pdf) that Oversee.net is cybersquatting with at least six domain names:

Taccori.com
Tacorri.com
Tacoriiv.com
TacoriRings.com
Tacoti.com
Tracori.com

Tacori alleges that Oversee.net “is a serial cybersquatter who registers, uses, and traffics in domain names that are confusingly similar to famous or distinctive trademarks owned by others, including Tacori trademarks.” It also alleges that Oversee.net intentionally failed to maintain accurate whois records for the domains.

Tacori is represented by Howard Kroll and David Steele of Christie, Parker, and Hale, LLP. The two are no strangers to cybersquatting lawsuits; they’ve represented Verizon in multiple cases.

When asked for comment, Oversee.net responded “We are reviewing the lawsuit and plan to defend our position vigorously.”



Mayor arrested after illegally accessing GoDaddy account and cancelling domain

Mayor and his son accused of hacking into email and then illegally accessing GoDaddy account to cancel domain name registration.

West New York mayor Felix Roque and his son were arrested after allegedly working together to hack into an email account to gain access to a GoDaddy account and take down a domain name related to a recall effort against the mayor.

The complaint alleges that Roque’s son, Joseph Roque, was first able to compromise the email address for the owner of RecallRoque.com. Once he had access to the email he then was able to reset the password on the GoDaddy account that held the domain name. He subsequently logged in to cancel the registration, taking the recall web site down.

The complaint also alleges that the pair accessed communications from the registrant’s email account to harass people who were contributing information to Roque’s recall campaign.

It’s a rather fascinating read about how someone used the internet to figure out how to hack into an email account, and subsequently access a registrar account.

Forget worrying about losing your job as mayor. How does ending up in the slammer sound?

[note: the title of this post was updated to avoid confusion. The mayor's son compromised an email account which was then used to do a password reset at GoDaddy.]



Republicans create Cory Booker web sites

Republican National Committee registers Cory Booker domains and creates petition sites.

Ever since Newark, New Jersey mayor and super-hero Cory Booker kinda-sorta-maybe got on the Obama campaign’s case for attacking Mitt Romney on his Bain record, Republicans everywhere have been rejoicing.

That includes the Republican National Committee, which just registered the domain names IStandWithCory.com and IStandwithCoryBooker.com and has created a web site for them.

The web site asks people to sign a petition saying “Don’t let the Obama campaign silence support for job creation.”

I’m not quite sure who is against job creation, but that’s how the spin doctors are working it out.

Of course, the Republicans don’t stand with Booker on other issues that they care about. Like gay marriage.

Maybe they should have registered IStandwithCoryBookerOnaNegativeCampaigningIssueButNotMuchElse.com


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