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Farrer & Co law firm loses cybersquatting dispute

by — Policy & Law 0 Comments

Company tries to get matching .com that receives misdirected email.

Screen grab of Farrer & Co website and web address Farrer.co.uk

Not .com, and that’s causing issues for this law firm.

If you don’t own the .com version of your domain name, you are likely missing emails intended for your company.

That’s why law firm Farrer & Co LLP filed a UDRP against Farrer.com. It uses Farrer.co.uk, and it learned that clients sent sensitive information to email addresses at @Farrer.com.

The firm lost the dispute, though.

A three-member World Intellectual Property Organization panel found that Farrer didn’t show that the owner, which runs an IT firm, lacked legitimate rights or interests in the domain. It also didn’t show that the domain was registered in bad faith.

The panel pointed out that the law firm could have obtained the domain on a couple of occasions as it has changed hands twice since it was originally registered in 1997.

It appears that the current registrant acquired the domain in a NameJet auction in 2012 for only $3,100.

The panel stopped short of finding Farrer & Co LLP to have filed the case in bad faith.

Adobe is really annoyed by this Dominican man’s “photo shop”

by — Policy & Law 13 Comments

Photoshop maker takes another stab at getting his domain names. It fails.

Screenshot of PhotoshopCaribe.com, a domain name that Adobe says is cybersquatting on its Photoshop brand

A Dominican Republic photographer has had to defend his domain names twice.

Photoshop publisher Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) has tried (and failed) for a second time to take away the domains of a photographer in the Dominican Republic.

The company first filed a cybersquatting claim against Photoshop del Caribe, S.R.L in 2016, claiming that its use of PhotoshopCaribe.com was cybersquatting. The Dominican Republic company successfully defended that case because Adobe didn’t show that the domain was registered in bad faith. Adobe failed to show that its Photoshop mark was well known in the Dominican Republic when the photographer registered the domain in 2006 and chose his company name years before that.

Fast-forward to 2019. Adobe filed another cybersquatting dispute against both the original domain PhotoshopCaribe.com and PhotoshopdelCaribe.com. Since the original case was filed, Adobe has successfully gotten Photoshop del Caribe’s tradename registration in the Dominican Republic canceled.

The owner of the domains said he had no idea about the tradename cancellation until it received the new cybersquatting complaint. It is appealing the cancellation.

The World Intellectual Property Organization declined to hear the case on PhotoshopCaribe.com since Adobe already lost a dispute against the domain in 2016. It did consider if PhotoshopDelCaribe.com is a case of cybersquatting, but decided that Adobe didn’t show it was registered in bad faith.

Panelist Adam Taylor noted that Adobe didn’t remedy its shortcomings from the first case it lost.

Photoshop is powerful software, but it can’t manipulate old cybersquatting cases to make them look like they never existed.

Overspray company Overreaches in cybersquatting dispute

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

Company tries to get control of competitor’s domain but is nailed for reverse domain name hijacking instead.

Photo of car with overspray paint

An overspray removal company has been found to have tried reverse domain name hijacking a domain name through UDRP.

National Overspray Removal, LLC filed a cybersquatting complaint with National Arbitration Forum over the domain name nationaloversprayremovalservice.com.

The domain is owned by another Texas company that does overspray removal, a service for removing overspray paint and other chemicals from autos.

The Complainant relied on a trademark it filed in 2017 claiming first use in June 2010. But the Respondent registered the domain in May 2010. Furthermore, it’s clear the Respondent is using the domain for a business.

Noting the dates, panelist Steven M. Levy found in favor of the Respondent and reverse domain name hijacking.

The two parties are currently embroiled in a court case over the name.

Auction front running pops up in cybersquatting dispute

by — Expired Domains 5 Comments

Front running makes for a confusing cybersquatting case.

Auction gavel with words "Auction Front Running"

Auction front running is black mark on the domain name market.

Front runners email potential buyers of a domain name before winning a domain name auction, usually as a domain name expires. If they find an eager prospect for the domain, they bid up the price of the domain to win it and sell it to the buyer.

The practice is highlighted in a recent UDRP, Stonz Wear Inc. v. Domain Admin, Level2 LLC.

Stonz Wear was bombarded with offers to buy the domain Stonz.com before the domain was auctioned on NameJet. The company engaged with some of the inquirers, including one “Dan Wilson”, who worked for the Respondent.

The Respondent, which won the auction, explained to Stonz Wear that the inquiries it received (other than from Dan Wilson) were from front runners. It called the practice nefarious and said it doesn’t condone it.

But Stonz Wear pointed out that, based on the auction timeline, Level 2 LLC was one of the front runners itself! Dan Wilson reached out prior to the end of the auction.

The World Intellectual Property Organization panel found in favor of Stonz Wear and ordered the domain transferred.

Stonz Wear lost a prior UDRP it filed on this name against a previous owner.

Clinton Sparks wins domain name back

by — Policy & Law 2 Comments

Grammy-nominated Clinton Sparks gets domain name back after it expired.

Screenshot of a fake profle on ClintonSparks.com

Clinton Sparks? Not really. Just an attempt to game the search engines.

DJ, producer and songwriter Clinton Sparks has won the rights to the domain name ClintonSparks.com, which expired after a dispute with his agent.

Sparks and his Get Familiar Music Company registered the domain in 2002 and the agent let it lapse in 2017.

A Ukranian SEO expert then registered the domain name and put up a fake profile of a University of Pennslyvania professor (see image). The profile picture is actually of an American University professor.

The fake profile on ClintonSparks.com links to two sites: UPENN.edu and an academic essay writing service. It seems that the domain owner registered this domain based on its SEO value, and then used the fake site to bolster its backlink profile. The site was designed to confuse search engines.

With the help of attorney John Berryhill, Sparks and Get Familiar Music filed a UDRP with National Arbitration Forum. Berryhill rarely represents Complainants, but he chooses interesting cases when he does.