Actress wins domain name at WIPO.
Actress Scarlett Johansson has won rights to the domain name ScarlettJohansson.com in an arbitration decision at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Johansson has starred in numerous movies including Lost in Translation, Match Point, and The Ghost Whisperer and been nominated for several Golden Globe Awards.
The details of the domain name arbitration case are rather interesting. Apparently the owner of the domain, Tristan Dare, set up a contest on the site that invited people to win a shot at a “threesome” with Johansson. However, the threesome was actually just the chance to go to Johansson’s movie Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona with two other people. Contestants had to send an e-mail explaining why they should be the winner.
As an indication of how much traffic the domain received, Dare said the site had 100,000 visits over 4 days and 10,000 people entered the contest. It also received media attention.
Johansson had nothing to do with the contest, but Dare said an “anonymous” person e-mailed him offering $10,000 to run a campaign promoting the movie. When Dare declined, he claims the person offered $20,000. He said he wouldn’t take money because he’s an artist, but created the site as a parody for non-commercial gain. Dare didn’t provide the e-mails to the WIPO panel.
Dare is certainly a creative artist if his explanation to the panel is any indication. Among his claims were that “The “contest†reflected the Respondent’s “nihilistic†approach, and was intended to question, examine, and highlight the nature of corporate greed, whereby an “anything goes†attitude trumps anything else as long as it serves a bottom-line agenda”. He also registered the domain name with an address of “900 Pound Guerrilla Way”.
The panel didn’t buy it and handed the domain over to Johansson.
Photo from Wikipedia Commons.
David J Castello says
Dare didn’t provide the e-mails to the WIPO panel?
File this under “The dog ate my homework” defense strategies.
Andrew says
David – agreed
Kevin Davis says
Kinda strange don’t cha think.
wanna develop says
Now only if she would go after the typos… There are at least a dozen really common ones.
This is what happens when you have a hard to spell and odd first + last name! 😉
WIPPO says
Yet another case of domain amateurs not knowing what they were doing when it comes to dealing with WIPO.
Next time Dare contact us.
WIPPO
World Internet Property Protection Organization
Stephen Douglas says
Man, just a few views of Judge Judy at work would warn the lowest IQ domain buyer of how to rep themselves in court to give them even a “slight” chance.
A lot of people laff at the fact that I watch JJ, without realizing she presents a clear strategic and logical progression of questions in discovering the “legal truth” in disputes. Some of the most egotistical defendants and plaintiffs have had their “cases” derailed with JJ’s specific line of questioning. Once you’ve seen her show for a month, you can see her pattern. (She even jokes to her longtime bailiff on how the person in her sights is literally falling into her trap – like a chess game and she’s rolling to a checkmate with no way to stop it.)
It’s amazing to see the squirming of people who have convinced themselves they are right, and then in front of 10 million viewers, have their “logic” splayed like a plucked chicken on the butcher block.
So, my advice for the doofus who tried to justify owning ScarlettJohansson.com is, watch Judge Judy for a week before presenting your case. (This is not a joke post, what I learned from watching JJ helped me win several court decisions in the last few years, and never lost one).
Mark says
News like this causes Domains like : benaffleck.com mattdamon.com penelopecruz.com To all pop up on SEDO’s auctions it seems to me (Not mine BTW). All are still in the 500$ range …