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Billionaire’s company sues to get his name in .com

by — Policy & Law 7 Comments

Man asked for $49,999 for DanFriedkin.com domain name.

The Friedkin Group, a holding company for billionaire Dan Friedkin’s businesses, has filed a lawsuit (pdf) to get the domain name DanFriedkin.com.

Rajesh Kumar of Bihar, India registered the domain name last year. It’s unclear the exact sequence of events, but on February 9 Kumar sent this email to representatives at The Friedkin Group:

Hello,

Sub: Very Rare and Special Domain name WWW.danfriedkin.com is for sale.

It a great pleasure to inform you that We have this registered domain www.danfriedkin.com and for sale. We
thought it is most suitable for your company and Mr.Dan fried kin since [Dan fried kin] can be applied for your
company and its personal achievement activities.

It is one of a kind rare and special domain which has endless opportunities and your icons. It has also got very
high family value and can be reused for any other purpose like your achieve ment in the rest of your life.

Please send your offers to us at the earliest. Minimum price expected is US $ 49,999.00 [US Dollars four nine
nine nine nine] or visit to auction at www.godaddy.com to purchase this very rarest domain.If you want to buy
just visit website to take auction on www.godaddy.com you can email me at [redacted].

Kindly forward this message to the appropriate authority in your organisation for consideration.
Thank you

I’m not sure what Kumar thought the response to the email would be.

Friedkin Group filed an in rem suit against the domain name in Arizona, where GoDaddy is located.

Looking at the Whois history, Kumar is not the first person to register this domain name and try to sell it.

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Lawsuit filed to overturn OpenTime.com UDRP

by — Policy & Law 7 Comments

Domain owner shot himself in the foot in UDRP response, so he’s asking a court to let him keep the domain name.

The owner of OpenTime.com, who lost the domain name in a UDRP decision last month, has filed a lawsuit (pdf) to try to retain ownership of the domain name.

If you look at the facts, it may seem surprising that the panel ordered the domain name transferred. After all, registrant Kevin Burns has a trademark in Japan for “Open Time”. The term is also descriptive.

But it seems that Burns or his attorney really upset the panelist by making false or questionable statements, and this played against Burns. For example, the initial response stated that Burns owned the domain since 2000. Click here to continue reading…

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Breaking: Verisign loses appeal in .XYZ lawsuit

by — Policy & Law 10 Comments

Appeals court affirms District Court’s decision to grant summary judgment to XYZ in false advertising case.

David has beaten Goliath. Again.

Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN) has lost its appeal in its false advertising lawsuit against .XYZ and its founder, Daniel Negari.

Verisign, which runs the .com and .net namespaces, alleged in a lawsuit that Negari made false claims about registrations of .XYZ and that he caused harm by disparaging the availability of .com domain names.

The district court granted summary judgment in XYZ’s favor, holding that Verisign could not establish the elements of a Lanham Act claim. The appeals court affirmed the district court’s decision in an opinion (pdf) published today.

Claims about Success of .XYZ

The court determined that Verisign failed to produce the required evidence that it suffered actual injury as a direct result of XYZ’s self-promotion about .XYZ.

The crux of Verisign’s argument was that .XYZ actually gave away 375,000 .xyz domain names but included these in its registration numbers to show how successful it was. These 375,000 domains were part of a deal with Web.com in which Web.com gave a $3 million dollar advertising credit to XYZ and XYZ gave Web.com $3 million dollars’ worth of .xyz domain names. Web.com gave these domains to its customers. Click here to continue reading…

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Nat Cohen’s Telepathy sues for reverse domain name hijacking

by — Policy & Law 8 Comments

Telepathy claims finance company is trying to reverse hijack a domain name it owns.

Telepathy, Inc., a company owned by domain name investor Nat Cohen, has sued Seattle company Parametric Portfolio Associates, LLC for alleged reverse domain name hijacking and other actions.

Parametric, a financial firm, uses the domain name ParametricPortfolio.com. Telepathy has owned the domain name Parametric.com since 1998.

Parametric filed a UDRP on Parametric.com at World Intellectual Property Organization last month. Rather than wait for a UDRP decision that cannot award financial penalties for reverse domain name hijacking, Telepathy decided to sue in U.S. District Court in Washington DC.

In addition to seeking a finding of reverse domain name hijacking and a $100,000 penalty for it, Telepathy is seeking declaratory judgment and findings of fraud and negligent misrepresentation. Click here to continue reading…

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ICANN files motion to dismiss Donuts’ .Web lawsuit

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

ICANN says Donuts can’t sue and asks for court to dismiss case.

ICANN has filed a motion to dismiss (pdf) a lawsuit brought by a Donuts’-owned company over the results of an auction for .Web.

Donuts was one of seven applicants for the .web top level domain name. Another applicant, Nu Dot Co, won an ICANN auction of last resort for $135 million, and will therefore be awarded the domain name.

However, Nu Dot Co had a deal with Verisign (NYSE: VRSN) in which Verisign bankrolled the auction and Nu Dot Co agreed to transfer rights in the name to Verisign after the auction.

Donuts believes Nu Dot Co was required to file changes to its application as a result of this deal and an alleged executive departure, and that Verisign essentially sidestepped the application process by striking a deal with Nu Dot Co. Click here to continue reading…

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