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Stanley Pace challenges another UDRP decision in court

by — Policy & Law 5 Comments

Lawsuit filed to halt transfer of Lascal.com.

Stanley Pace, who has a history of UDRP cases as well as challenging adverse decisions in court, has filed a lawsuit (pdf) in an effort to overturn a decision against his domain name Lascal.com.

Joran Lundh, who is associated with the stroller and kids safety business Lascal, filed a complaint against Lascal.com with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in August.

Pace acquired the domain name in 2016 when it expired. He argued that he registered it because Lascal is a surname and a term to described planned roads between Las Vegas and California.

The single-member WIPO panel agreed with Lundh that Pace was cybersquatting with his registration of lascal.com and ordered the domain name to be transferred.

In response, Pace filed a lawsuit arguing this is a case of reverse domain name hijacking. He is asking a court for declaratory relief and attorney’s fees.

Pace recently moved from Texas to Washington and hired Seattle-based lawyer Derek Newman to represent him in the lawsuit. (Steven Rinehart represented Pace in the UDRP.)

Lundh, a Swedish citizen located in Hong Kong, submitted to jurisdiction in Pace’s location when he filed the UDRP.

Texas man sues Fortune 500 liquor company to overturn cybersquatting decision

by — Policy & Law 7 Comments

Liquor company says that Rufino.com is a typo of its Ruffino brand.

Wine maker Ruffino claims that Rufino.com is a typosquatting domain.

A Texas man who owns 60,000 domain names has sued Fortune 500 liquor company Constellation Brands, Inc in an effort to overturn an adverse Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) decision.

Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ) and its wine-making subsidiary Ruffino SRL filed a UDRP against Flower Mound, Texas resident Stanley Pace arguing that his domain name Rufino.com (one ‘f’) was typosquatting and an attempt to take advantage of the Ruffino brand. Pace countered that he owns 10,000 domain names that match surnames and that Rufino is a surname.

The UDRP panel sided with Constellation Brands. Pace filed suit in U.S. District Court Eastern District of Texas to try to overturn the decision.

The suit asks for declaratory relief stating that Pace is not cybersquatting and damages for reverse domain name hijacking.

Among Pace’s claims is that Constellation Brands falsely claimed in the UDRP that the parked page at Rufino.com showed ads for Constellation’s competitors. Although I didn’t see the evidence Constellation would generally be required to file in a UDRP, screenshots from the past several years recorded at Screenshots.com do not have any liquor-related ad links.

(Do not visit Rufino.com. It is now parked with Above.com and zero click landers, one of which led to a scam page that my antivirus software blocked.)

Howard Neu represented Pace in the UDRP and is representing him in the lawsuit.