Samsung files abusive cybersquatting complaint in an effort to get GalaxyStore.com domain name.
Samsung has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name GalaxyStore.com.
The electronics company changed the name of Galaxy Apps to Galaxy Store earlier this year and wanted the GalaxyStore.com domain name. However, the owner of GalaxyStore.com registered the domain name in 2004, at least five years before Samsung adopted the name Galaxy for its smartphones and tablets.
In other words, there’s no way the domain registrant registered the domain name with Samsung in mind. Nevertheless, Samsung filed a cybersquatting complaint under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) at Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre.
Because the domain registration pre-dated Samsung’s use of the Galaxy brand, the case was dead on arrival.
The domain owner’s counsel, Zak Muscovitch, warned Samsung’s counsel at Bae, Kim & Lee LLC IP Group about this critical fact and invited Samsung to withdraw the case. It didn’t, and the three-person UDRP panel found (pdf) Samsung to have filed the case in abuse of the policy, aka reverse domain name hijacking.
Massive profits can’t cover up thoughts of entitlement or acts of greedy stupidity.
Kudos Zak!
countersue now. that would be nice. and the lawyers should be disbarred.
Zak is outstanding counsel.
Congrats to Zak and his client.
Do they get to now sue Samsung for knowingly bringing a fraudulent case?
did Samsung go bankrupt, that they are not able to buy a domain-name ?
What a joke of a company…
hard to believe that Samsung is risking its reputation.
Now we can officially call Samsung a “Reverse Domain Name Hijacker” aka thieves.
They should be listed at HallOfShame.com
Congratulations to the domain-owner of GalaxyStore.com for fending off this corporate bully named Samsung.
It seems companies need to learn of how to professionally approach a Domain-owner and should not listen too much to the advise of their lawyers. Most of the lawyers have no clue anyway, as this example shows.
Samsung probably could have gotten this Domain-name for an acceptable price, but now they have to pay up millions of dollars if they want this domain.
Why don’t they just BUY the domains they need?
Both domains Galaxystore.com and Galaxy-Store.com are listed at SEDO.
It is shocking how stupid and greedy these BIG companies are.
Samsung should go and publicly APOLOGIZE to the domain-owner in order to fix their reputation on the internet.
On the other hand, Samsung-TV’s are secretly spying on you in your living-room via a small build-in camera, So literally the same CRAP as Amazon-Alexa.
as far as I know, the word “Galaxy” is a generic word. Nobody can claim the rights to the words “Galaxy Store”, even if they have a fake trademark for it in South Korea.
There are also tons of trademarks for the word “Galaxy”.
Why should a single company have the rights for the domain “Galaxy Store” ?