Group wants to get the WeWillRockYou.com domain name.
The rock group Queen has filed a case against the owner of WeWillRockYou.com at World Intellectual Property forum, asking an arbitration panel to hand the domain name over.
We Will Rock You is one of Queen’s greatest hits. Combined with We Are the Champions, Queen still gets plenty of play time at sports arenas around the world.
The song later became the name of a musical that still tours the globe to packed houses.
WeWillRockYou.com purports to be a site that lets artists get their work in front of a larger audience. But a couple years ago the site was a one page lander with links to buy tickets to the musical.
The domain name was originally registered in 1997.
The arbitration panel should decide the case within a couple months.
I thought you couldn’t trademark a “title”.
@Jorge
That’s largely true, but there’s something know as ‘secondary meaning’ that gives holders of well-known TMs common law rights to protect the name/phrase/mark from being diluted.
Secondary meaning is what prevents folks from using ‘Google’ as a TM for electrical supplies, or for bakery goods — even though Google (the company) doesn’t offer goods in either of those categories (…yet).
Laches would seem to be the line of defense to take on this wouldn’t it?
@ James – laches is rarely considered in UDRP. In this case I think the panel would be declined to dismiss laches because of the sophistication of the complainant. Had it been some big company who is well aware of UDRP and manages domain names they’d be more inclined to consider it.
I dunno. This guy wrote “we will rock you” back in 1888:
http://books.google.com/books?id=KtXkAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA154&dq=%22we+will+rock+you%22&hl=en&ei=S-D4TbvLDdPciALvhLT9DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22we%20will%20rock%20you%22&f=false
Or in an old Christmas Carol: http://bit.ly/jKTqPT
Sorry, I am easily entertained.
@Andrew – possibly, but ignorance is no defense.