American Express gets into .me UDRP game, Samsung starts collecting ccTLDs.
American Express has joined a list of companies to use domain name arbitration to get their .me domain names. The company filed a complaint with WIPO for AmericanExpress.me, which is owned by a New Jersey resident. The domain currently has a GoDaddy parking page. First ad? “American Express® Cards”.
Other companies/brands to get their corresponding .me domain names through UDRP include Overstock, Mozilla, Firefox, ExxonMobil, Sprite, and Porsche.
In other UDRP news, Samsung is starting to get results from a slew of UDRPs it filed for country code domain names a couple months ago. So far it has picked up Samsung.cd (Congo), Samsung.la (Laos), and Samsung.md (Moldova). It has cases pending for Samsung.nu, .nu, .as, .com.ve, .bz, and .tm.
Rob L. says
Registering trademarked domains is DUMB and bad for the entire domaining industry.
Individuals are responsible for their actions and should lose the domains to the TM holders.
However, registrars should be liable for profiting from the violations in the first place. Wouldn’t it save a lot of time and money if they simply denied the registration of obvious violations. I realize that the TM’s are probably not recognized in countries outside of the jurisdiction where companies hold the marks but it can be stopped by the registries, right?
Andrew Allemann says
@ Rob L – .co is doing something like that with its relaunch. There will be a global trademark list that can’t be registered by anyone other than the owner. I expect some of the new TLDs to do the same thing.
EM @ KING.NET says
@ Andrew
When is the relaunch of .co?
Andrew Allemann says
@ EM – here are the details of the .co relaunch.
Marg says
I continue to be amazed at the companies like American Express who think it’s good business practice to ignore the sunrise period of any domain extension, and then go after the TM domain later in a UDRP! What’s the minimum for a UDRP filing? More expensive than registering it in the first place I’m sure.
On the other hand, why be surprised at Amercian Express who were so asleep at the switch over their “Black Card” credit card. They have a high-end Centurion Card (colloquially well-known as the “Black Card”). They weren’t just asleep with this one, they were in a coma, as they allowed Visa to TM the name “Black Card” and acquire the domain BlackCard.com! All legal, as Amex had never bothered to TM “Black Card” themselves…
chandan says
companies should be fined too for neglecting in sunrise periods