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After losing UDRP, PureTalk sues to upgrade its domain name

by — Policy & Law 5 Comments

Company tries to get PureTalk(.)com through ACPA.

Logo for Pure Talk MVNO

Pure Talk lost a UDRP, so it filed a lawsuit to try to upgrade its domain from PureTalkUSA.com to PureTalk.com.

Pure Talk, a mobile virtual network operator, has filed a lawsuit (pdf) to try to obtain the domain name PureTalk(.)com. The company uses the domain name PureTalkUSA.com.

This is the company’s second attempt to get control of the domain without buying it. In June, the company filed a cybersquatting claim under UDRP. The panelist denied the claim because the domain was registered before Pure Talk had any trademark rights, so it couldn’t have been registered in bad faith.

Now, the company is trying its hand with an in rem lawsuit against the domain for violating the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). The lawsuit suggests that the domain was transferred to another owner after Pure Talk obtained trademark rights. That argument works in UDRP, but it can be harder under ACPA. I’m not sure why the company didn’t point out the potential ownership transfer in its UDRP.

Intriguingly, the company’s trademark for Pure Talk states a first use date of 2017. PureTalkUSA.com has been used for much longer, though.

The lawsuit also erroneously states that the registry for the domain is “VeriSign, Inc. d/b/a Public Interest Registry” and refers to Public Interest Registry as the registry a second time. Public Interest Registry is the registry for .org, not .com. Verisign is the .com registry.

But the in rem lawsuit strategy might just work. The domain owner needs to show up to defend the domain in court, or the judge might issue a default judgment.

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.

Valuable domain name Bespoke.com hit with another cybersquatting complaint

by — Policy & Law 12 Comments

Yet another company called Bespoke wants to get Bespoke.com without paying for it.

Yep, it’s in the dictionary.

When Garth Piesse paid $18,805 to acquire the domain name Bespoke.com in an expired domain name auction in 2014, I bet he didn’t expect to be hit with a couple cybersquatting complaints.

But he has.

First, a Swiss company filed a UDRP and lost. Now, a Louisiana company has filed a cybersquatting lawsuit in U.S. court (pdf).

Plaintiff Bespoke LLC markets custom tours in New Orleans. It was created in 2013.

It claims that Piesse is cybersquatting by holding the generic and dictionary domain name Bespoke.com.

From what I can tell in the lawsuit, it appears that the Louisiana company inquired through a Uniregistry Market landing page about buying the domain name. Piesse responded with an $8.5 million asking price.

The Louisiana company’s lawsuit claims: Click here to continue reading…

Owner of HighbrowMagazine.com demands Highbrow.com domain name

by — Policy & Law 6 Comments

Company that owns Highbrow.com paid about $20,000 for the domain name.

highbrowThe owner of an online publication at HighbrowMagazine.com has threatened the owners of Highbrow.com, demanding that they turn the domain name over to her.

Highbrow.com’s owner has filed a lawsuit in federal district court seeking declaratory judgment that their use of the domain name does not infringe HighbrowMagazine.com’s owners.

HighbrowMagazine.com describes itself as “a liberal, general-interest magazine covering arts/entertainment, politics, media, food, and travel”.

Highbrow.com is beauty blog launched last year. Its owners, Highbrow, LLC, paid about $20,000 to acquire the domain name.

In December last year, Highbrow Magazine, LLC sent a cease & desist letter to Highbrow, LLC. It demanded that Highbrow, LLC stop using the name and transfer the domain name. The cease & desist letter, the first of three, was sent through a company called The Trademark Company.

Now Highbrow, LLC is asking a U.S. District Court in Oregon for declaratory judgment and to cancel HighBrow Magazine’s trademarks.

Click to see the lawsuit filing…

Stanley Pace sues for alleged Reverse Domain Name Hijacking

by — Policy & Law 7 Comments

Pace sues after losing UDRP to dancewear company.

Stanley Pace, a Texas resident who has faced his fair share of UDRP complaints, lost another one last month. A three member UDRP panel ordered the domain name Yumiko.com transferred to dancewear company Yumiko, LLC.

He’s fighting back to halt the transfer and is asking for damages under the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act for reverse domain name hijacking.

Pace filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas on December 30. This will halt the transfer of the domain name, and now Yumiko will find itself on the defensive.

Howard Neu, who represented Pace in the UDRP, is also representing him in the lawsuit. Click here to continue reading…



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