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Googles.eu Dispute Resolution case lost by Google
April 26th, 2007 by 
Jay Westerdal
In what seems impossible, a Spanish citizen named Pablo Bello García just defended himself in a European Arbitration Dispute Resolution case (ADR) against Google, Inc for the domain name Googles.eu. It seems crazy or insane that the European Panel responsible for deciding this case would allow the Spanish man to keep the domain. The Panel denied Google’s claim because they said Google lacked evidence that they were entitled to the name. Uh, What? *Shaking my head in disbelief* Did this panel live under a rock? How backwards is Europe? Had Google provided something like license or some other documentation they may have won the case. The case seemed so simple, I am sure the Google Lawyers must have been caught off guard. Google will need to dot their Is and cross their Ts before they do battle again in Europe. Just looking at the guy’s site, anyone in their right mind can see they are violating Google’s Trademark. Pablo even stole Google’s logo and adapted it. Absolutely nuts. Google is sure to appeal the case.
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Posted in Domain Dispute, EU Domains |
April 26th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Firstly: Have a look at googles.com ….. See? So don’t pick on Europe.
Secondly: You have to get your documents right, otherwise anyone could claim to be Google and get the domain. For .eu Domains you need somone in the EU, so Google took their branch office in Ireland. But they need to prove that they are holder of the “Google” trademark. If they don’t do that properly, the case will be dismissed.
April 28th, 2007 at 9:17 am
The ADR panels have rules to follow. Some of their decisions are definitely strange but in this case, it seems that the proof was not provided. Even so, there are approximately 270 google* type .eu domains which are not on Google’s nameservers. Some are moving into quarantine as they are dropped. Google can bring another ADR and probably will. Other Intellectual Property rights owners have also had their IP infringed in the .eu ccTLD. However the ccTLD is considered such a disaster in Europe that it is basically being ignored in favour of the relevant ccTLD or .com/.net. There hasn’t been one .eu sizeable pureplay since .eu launched.(If anything, the .eu fiasco has encouraged growth in the ccTLDs in the EU.) The extent of warehousing/cybersquatting in .eu is quite high and according to EURid’s own figures as of 31/December/2006, approximately 54% of the registered .eu domains were warehoused/aggregated. Some of the operations are ordinary domain aggregation operations but others are quite blatently targeting the intellectual property rights of others. EURid is just ignoring this activity. And as the old expression goes, the fish rots from the head down.
Even Microsoft has problems in .eu ccTLD. Approximately 138 microsoft* .eu domains exist that are not on MSFT.COM nameservers. What is surprising is that there are not a lot more ADRs. But the poor credibility of the .eu ccTLD may play a factor in this and EURid is directly to blame due to its mismanagement of the .eu Sunrise/Landrush fiasco and its collaboration with all those phantom registrars. The vast majority of .eu domains were never used. They were left parked on the hoster “coming soon” servers. The ones that were used were largely parked. EU businesses who lost their .eu domains to cybersquatters have generally ignored the ADR process as being a waste of money and consequently they’ve ignored .eu ccTLD too. Right now, people are betting on how many .eu domains will drop. Very few in the EU are worried about ADRs for such a visibly corrupted and incompetently run ccTLD.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Dead right! I’m European and followed closely the sunrise disaster.
If .eu ever becomes the ‘de facto’ euro domain zone it won’t happen in the next 10 years.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:29 am
GoogleS and Google!
Can YOU see any difference?
I can! (ICAN ICANN) OK!If One is in The “Big Time”
And has Big Money, Cover all the agles and buy the “Part of the Beach Front” Nearest Your property!DAHHH!
iPhone iPhom! Sexshop Secshop!
And if a Large Corp could buy the Land right next to your home and make a profitable “Poop Recycling” Dump,Would They?And Could You/We stop them? Google Googie!
Peace!