Company files four UDRPs. Are these generic domains or trademarks?
The Southern Company has filed four UDRP cases to get domain names that include a state or region and power company in them:
georgiapowercompany.com
mississippipowercompany.com
alabamapowercompany.com
gulfpowercompany.com
This will be an interesting set of cases to follow. On the surface these may look like generic domain names. But the Southern Company has subsidiaries named the same as each of these domain names. A lot of this will come down to the intent and use of the registrant.
What could make this interesting is that each case could have different panelists assigned to them. Will they all come to similar conclusions while they work separately to decide the cases? This could be an interesting test of World Intellectual Property Organization’s UDRP practices.
I’m from Georgia.
Georgia Power is known as Georgia Power. Nobody calls it Georgia Power Company.
This is a blatant land grab and is overreaching in claiming “rights” to these domains.
Dirty, crooked business buy the Southern Company IMO.
There is no way they have any legitimate rights unless the registrant was using the domains in an intentionally confusing context.
From Georgia Power’s about us page…
Utilities join transmission networks
In 1920, the state made its first interconnection with the Alabama Power Company through a
transmission line that extended from Rome, Ga., to the Gadsden, Ala., steam generating plant.
…
In 1926, several southern utilities, including Georgia Railway and Power Company, become part of
a holding company called Southeastern Power & Light Company. During the consolidation, the
name of Georgia Railway and Power changed to Georgia Power Company. Atkinson became chairman
of the board and retained that title until his death in 1939. With the consolidations, the new
Georgia Power Company now served about half the state.
…
http://www.georgiapower.com/about/pdf/History.pdf
The public name has nothing to do with the legal registered company name. Southern Company definitely holds the right to these names, and has for over 80 years.
To Plunder and Pilferage or not?
There appears to be a dangerous trend
in that, like a kindergarten child upon discovering his/her, first reading book, non-domineers are starting to wake-up after the train has left the station and realize, that internet life has been rapidly progressing without waiting for there slow- dim-witted “left behind minds” to catch up to speed….
gTLD .Com is short for commercial, of course
And there was and is precedent in internet and common law/trade law that clearly states that who ever registers a Domain name or gTLD first owns the name…”Unless it was Deliberately registered in bad faith” after all GOD could claim http://www.god.com couldn’t he, and he has not?
lol
Now, the latecomers/turtles
bunch seem to feel that they ‘have a right’ to ‘rewrite the rules of engagement’ so to speak, and land grab intellectual property from the little people,as they see fit.
Georgia Power simply missed the train,
and now they are setting the…
“Sheriff of Nottingham” upon the surfs to ravage and pilferage ‘intellectual property.
There needs to be a NEW special gTLD for “Dummies’ who don’t know it”
Maybe? [ http://www..georgiapowercompany.Dum ]
would be fitting.