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MIT’s Scratch Foundation gets Scratch.org in settlement

by — Policy & Law 5 Comments

Owner of Scratch.org domain name transfers it to non-profit as part of settlement.

Scratch Foundation's website screenshot

Scratch.org now forwards to scratch.mit.edu.

Scratch Foundation has settled a cybersquatting lawsuit it brought against the domain name Scratch.org with the domain’s registrant, Ravi Lahoti.

Although full terms of the settlement have not been publicly disclosed, part of the agreement involved transferring the domain to Scratch Foundation. Scratch.org now forwards to the foundation’s website at scratch.mit.edu.

Previously, Lahoti was in discussions to settle the case by transferring the domain name for $20,000. That settlement didn’t go through.

After the previous settlement failed, the judge overseeing the case ordered Lahoti to provide extensive information about his domain name activities including a list of all domains he ever owned, how much money he made from each domains, and any allegations of trademark infringement made against him. Oh, and this information would be public!

That apparently sent Lahoti back to the negotiating table.

Lahoti registered the domain name well before Scratch Foundation existed, so his ownership of the domain name does not run afoul of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. However, the judge certainly didn’t approve of some of Lahoti’s alleged prior behavior, prompting his approval of the request for data and to make it public.

The settlement notice says that both parties will pay their own legal fees in the matter.

Oops. If you don’t renew your domain name, this could happen

by — Policy & Law 6 Comments

A government watchdog let its domain name expire. Someone advocating for the other side registered it.

Screenshot of the website citizensforabetterkenner.com

The new message at citizensforabetterkenner.com is in stark contrast to the old one.

An advocacy group in the city of Kenner, Louisiana let its domain name expire. Now someone in opposition to the group is using the domain.

Citizens for a Better Kenner, Inc., is a non-profit watchdog of the local government. It registered the domain name CitizensforaBetterKenner.com in 2011 to promote its cause.

Then, apparently earlier this year, it let the domain name expire. Someone with a very different message registered the domain. The website now has the message:

Thank you to Mayor Zahn, the Kenner City Council, and Chief Glaser for doing an excellent job keeping our city moving in the right direction in 2019.

The overwhelming volume of Kenner residents appreciates what you do!

In a lawsuit (pdf) filed to try to recover the domain (as well as the matching .net and .org) and get damages, Citizens for a Better Kenner states that “The opinions and content as currently displayed on the website are in stark contrast to the actual opinions of the actual CFBK.”

The non-profit alleges that the new owner of the domain is cybersquatting and has “a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill created over eight (8) years by CFBK.”

The group might have trouble proving this. It does not appear that the current owner has a profit motive. It simply appears to be exercising its own free speech with the “opinions and content,” which may be a plausible defense in the case.

Granted, it may not be clear to people when they visit the website.

Clemson Tigers get off-field win in domain name dispute

by — Policy & Law 4 Comments

Tigers score domain name in cybersquatting challenge.

Logo for the Clemson Tigers has a pawprint on orange backgroundThe Clemson Tigers are having another great year on the football field, and now they have an off-field victory as well. This win took place at World Intellectual Property Organization.

Clemson University has won a cybersquatting dispute under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) for the domain name ClemsonUniversity(.)org. With the victory, Clemson will get the domain name in about 10 days.

Interestingly, Clemson doesn’t own ClemsonUniversity(.)com but hasn’t filed a cybersquatting complaint against that domain.

Both domains should concern the university. When I visited ClemsonUniversity(.)org today, Norton blocked my visit saying that it had the RIG Exploit Kit. The domain currently points to the Above.com nameservers, which means it’s pointing somewhere else from there and is likely serving zero-click ads that forward to various destinations.

ClemsonUniversity(.)com also resolves to zero-click, which means visitors are sometimes exposed to scammy websites. When I visited this morning, it tried to install a Google Chrome extension.

Lotto.com and Naturals.com hit with cybersquatting complaints

by — Policy & Law 4 Comments

Two valuable dictionary word domains are subject to UDRP filings.

Screenshot for Naturals.in showing a woman sitting on a chair

A chain of beauty salons in India that uses the domain Naturals.in is trying to get Naturals.com through UDRP.

After publishing my story this morning about the fight between a lotto company and Lotto Sport, a reader pointed out that Lotto.com was recently hit with a UDRP. It’s not the only recent filing against a valuable dictionary term domain name.

For Lotto.com, the case was filed by Bremer Toto und Lotto GmbH. The company uses the domain name lotto-bremen.de. I’m not sure how lotteries work in Germany, so perhaps a reader can chime in with information on if this is a local lotto or some sort of national lottery in Germany.

The domain is registered to a company called Cavour Ltd. based in Isle of Man.

The second domain that caught my attention is Naturals.com. WIPO shows the Complainant to be Veena Kumaravel, an entrepreneur with a chain of 550 beauty salons in India that use the name Naturals. The company uses the domain Naturals.in.

The domain is registered to Daegu Law Auction in Korea.

[Update: Elliot Silver has more info on Naturals.com]

Lotto Sport Italia and lotto company file dueling motions for summary judgment

by — Policy & Law 3 Comments

Did a lotto company buy domains for its business or to cyber squat?

Picture of lottery balls in green, purple, blue and red

A battle over lotto-related domain names is about two-and-a-half years old, and it’s entering a critical period.

Lotto Sport Italia, the soccer apparel company, filed a cybersquatting dispute under UDRP against the domain names LottoStore.com and LottoWorks.com at the beginning of 2017.

The domain names were purchased by a Canadian man who runs a lotto (as in gambling) business. David Dent acquired lottostore.com in September 2016 for $4,820 and then purchased lottoworks.com in December 2016 for $6,500.

Lotto Sport won the UDRP. My take at the time was that this was an end user purchase of lotto-related domain names for a lotto business, but that Dent was not represented well in the UDRP response.

Dent sued to stop the transfer. Now, over two years later, both parties have filed motions for summary judgment in the case.

Will either party prevail in their motions? It’s difficult to say, but looking at this case from the outside, I belive my original supposition was correct: a lotto business bought domain names with the word lotto in them to operate its lotto business. It had no intention of infringing the rights of a soccer apparel company. It strains credulity to suggest otherwise.

We’ll see what the judge has to say.

The soccer company is represented by Marc Randazza. Its motion is here.

The lotto company is represented by John Berryhill and Jeffrey Johnson of Schmeiser, Olsen & Watts. Its motion is here.