In a recent WIPO decision, comedian Bill Cosby won the rights to the FatAlbert.org domain. Cosby complained that the domain was registered in bad faith and linking to adult web sites. The registrant of the domain, Sterling Davenport, didn’t even bother responding to the WIPO complaint. It’s not like Sterling Davenport had any defense.
A quick check of WhoIs records shows that Bill Cosby’s law firm holds ownership of FatAlbert.com. However, FatAlbert.net is owned by an individual in Atlanta, Georgia. The domain currently is about cartoon character Eeyore, and forwards to the owners Eeyore.us domain. This might be a clever trick to make claims to WIPO that it’s not being used in bad faith. However, there are a couple hitches:
1. Archive.org shows that FatAlbert.net previously was a simple page with Amazon.com affiliate links for Fat Albert merchandise
2. The owner of FatAlbert.net has been so bold as to put copyrighted images of cartoon characters on his site. Although WIPO can’t technically use this in a domain dispute decision, they are sure to question the purpose of the web site.
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