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Accio, domain name! Harry Potter movie studio fails to get Dumbledore domain

by — Policy & Law 0 Comments

“Accio Domain Name!” apparently doesn’t work.

Still of Dumbledore from a Harry Potter Film

Is there a spell for getting domain names? (Still from a Harry Potter movie.)

Warner Bros. Entertainment has failed to conjure up enough magic to get the domain name Dumbledore.com through a cybersquatting complaint.

The studio filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum to get the domain name, the namesake of the lovable Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series.

It ran into two problems when it tried to argue that the owner of the domain is cybersquatting.

First, Dumbledore is an old dictionary word. J.K. Rowling mentioned that his name was based on this old word.

Second, the owner of the domain hadn’t done anything with the domain when the dispute was filed, so Warner Bros. couldn’t show bad faith given the dictionary meaning of the word.

Gerald Levine, the man who literally “wrote the book on UDRP“, was the panelist.

Levine wrote:

The disputed domain name is a dictionary word that by happenstance corresponds to one of the words in Complainant’s trademark. Complainant does not have a trademark for the word “dumbledore” standing alone. It may be that aficionados steeped in Harry Potter lore will instantly associate “dumbledore” with the fictional character, and possibly with the trademark owner, but that is not enough to grant Complainant a monopoly on a word that has meanings beyond that conveyed by the mark. A dictionary word domain name that corresponds to a word in a trademark is not presumptively abusive of third-party rights. Use alone will determine the outcome of rights. If Respondent is found to be using the domain name in bad faith it will support registration in bad faith, but there can be no abusive registration without proof of use in bad faith.

 

Former ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom commenting on .Org deal

by — Policy & Law 8 Comments

Beckstrom posed arguments during forum last week.

On February 11, American University Washington College of Law held a program about the sale of .Org to private equity company Ethos Capital.

Former ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom was in attendance, and he posed some good questions about the transaction. The video below starts playing at the point Beckstrom begins commenting:

After hearing of the deal, Beckstrom says, “I felt incredibly sad… I was just shocked. Not just because this non-profit asset was being monetized, but because of how it was handled.”

Beckstrom posed several questions, including the valuation of the deal and if ISOC/PIR are really operating in the public benefit, as required of non-profits.

“Unicorn” Nubank is a reverse domain name hijacker

by — Policy & Law 0 Comments

Brazilian financial company filed dead-on-arrival cybersquatting complaint.

Reverse domain name hijacking graphic

Nubank, a Brazilian finance startup that has raised billions in funding, tried to reverse domain name hijack the domain name Nubank.com.

A World Intellectual Property Organization panelist made the ruling after Nubank (Nu Pagamentos S.A.) made a cybersquatting claim against the domain name. The owner of the domain name didn’t respond to the dispute, but it’s clear that the domain was registered well before Nubank had any trademark rights in the term.

It appears that Nubank filed the complaint after failing to get a response to its purchase overtures.

In finding reverse domain name hijacking, panelist Steven Maier wrote:

The Complainant is professionally represented in this matter and, in the opinion of the Panel, knew or ought to have known that it had no reasonable chance of prevailing in this proceeding for the reasons set out above, including in particular the fact that the disputed domain name had been registered many years before the Complainant began using the trademarks in question. Further, the Complainant’s admission that it has tried but failed to purchase the disputed domain name from the Respondent suggests to the Panel that this proceeding represents a fallback, in circumstances where the Complainant has failed to secure the disputed domain name by commercial negotiation. The Panel therefore finds that the Complaint was brought in bad faith and constitutes an abuse of the administrative proceeding.

K&L Gates LLP represented Nubank.

Ethos adds legally-binding provisions to try to save .Org deal

by — Policy & Law 15 Comments

8-year price cap, censorship and data controls would be baked into registry agreement amendment.

Logo for .org domain, featuring a blue circle with white letters spelling ORG

Ethos Capital, the company that is trying to acquire the .Org registry, took a big step today to try to push it over the finish line. It agreed to add a Public Interest Commitment (PIC) (pdf) to the registry agreement with ICANN that would enforce some of the promises it has made publicly.

The move comes after ICANN sent a letter to Internet Society, which current controls .org, making it clear that ICANN believes it has the power to nix the deal on grounds beyond security and stability.

Among the commitments is to cap the .org price for the first eight years. The price increase will be capped at 10% per year on average, and now “on average” has some teeth. It can’t be front-loaded, although the trigger date will be backdated to June 2019.

The current wholesale price of a .org domain is $9.93. That means that, after eight years, the price could be around $21, more than double the current price.

After eight years, PIR could change the price as much as it wants. (That might be about the time Ethos decides to exit the business.)

Before the Ethos announcement, Public Interest Registry said it had no current plans to increase the price of .org domain names.

Additionally, the .Org Stewardship Council will have veto authority on changes to .org policies around censorship and freedom of expression, as well as the use of .org registrant and user data.

PIR will also establish a Community Enablement Fund to support initiatives benefitting .org registrants. It will contribute $10 million to this fund during the remaining lift of the current registry agreement. That’s about $1 million a year.

ICANN moves Spring Break online over Coronavirus fears

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

ICANN goes virtual, INTA moves to the U.S.

Picture of beach party with the words "spring break 2020 e-edition"

No beach party for policy wonks.

There will be no cavorting with college students on the beach in Cancun next month for domain policy wonks after all.

ICANN, the organization that oversees domain names, has moved its March meeting planned for Cancun to the internet. The meeting will still happen but it will be virtual. All sessions will be held via remote participation.

Fears of spreading a coronavirus, Covid-19, led to the change.

There’s no concern of picking up the virus from locals in Mexico. But many people travel to the conference, including many people from China and surrounding areas.

In a separate announcement, International Trademark Association (INTA) announced that it is moving its April meeting planned for Singapore to a location in the United States.