Plaintiff claims owner of matching .com is cybersquatting.
The owner of the domain name Zon.Tools filed a lawsuit (pdf) in an effort to get the domain name ZonTools.com.
Zon Tools, Inc offers tools at Zon.Tools to help Amazon sellers with sponsored products bidding. It registered Zon.Tools in July 2017.
The owner of ZonTools.com uses its domain name to offer similar tools as well as other Amazon seller tools such as review management. It registered the domain name in July 2018.
You might ask yourself why Zon Tools didn’t register ZonTools.com when it registered Zon.Tools. The answer is simple: ZonTools.com was registered in back in 2013 but expired in 2018. It went through the entire deletion cycle and then the defendant domain name was registered.
This shows one of the risks of registering a new TLD when you don’t own the “matching” .com. Of course, this can work both ways. If ZonTools.com was the first registered domain, someone could use Zon.Tools in a way that confuses users.
Karl S. Kronenberger is representing Zon Tools, Inc. in the in rem lawsuit. I’m a bit surprised that the lawsuit was filed in California rather than Virginia where .com registry Verisign is headquartered, but the lawsuit notes that Verisign has an office in the jurisdiction where the case was filed.
Mike says
Of course many people knew that the only “benefit” from te new TLD’s was going to be (A) The Registries and (B) The lawyers .That “B” is now coming true and will continue to do so as more new tld owners realise a lot of traffic goes to .com by default.
John says
Why not just do a UDRP first? Seems this one might be a no-brainer for the plaintiff.
Andrew Allemann says
UDRP might be tricky here. Respondent is using the domain name.
Steve says
Yes, compelling case.
And a lot at stake.
Zon Tools could be an acquisition target for Amazon.com, depending on revenues, user base, and the technology.
Nick says
Many bad decisions here. He didn’t get the dot com, He didn’t even get a trademark.
Mary Jo Rohner says
Horrible name to begin with
Andrew Allemann says
I think the idea is short for Amazon without running into trademark issues.
Charles Christopher says
>Zon.Tools in July 2017
>ZonTools.com in July 2018
>This shows one of the risks of registering a new
>TLD when you don’t own the “matching” .com.
If the reverse happened it would not be news. That suggests to me there is a problem with the logic.
In theory Cybersquatting is TLD agnostic, so there is no “risk” in not having an adjacent domain which is used for unrelated business. Once the domain is used for related business after the fact then someone is trying to grab your business.
Not saying this case is going to win, just saying at some point such a case will win based on the merits of the dates and the actions of the use of the domain. At some point someone WILL register a non .COM domain, for which the .COM was NEVER registered, build a business, and the .COM will be registered to draw off the traffic …. And a dispute will result in the .COM going the nTLD holder. When that happens perceptions will again change significantly.
At that point, regardless of TLDs, such events will not be posted as news …
Shakeel Ahmed says
Absolutely Sir,
People wan’t benefit from Top Level Domains,
Alot of people like TLD’s Domain and some how want’s (Country Domains etc.
TLD Domains getting traffic compare to others.