DomainTools Blog

Keith Malley thought that he would predict the future by registering The Simpsons Movie.com, which Fox would natural want. His hope was to cash in on how smart he was. He offered to sell the website to Fox for $50,000. His rational was pretty logical, if the movies makes a few million then what is $50,000 for the best domain name. What Keith did not realize is that this is an illegal practice. People are not allowed to register domain names which target a company or individual. Fox refused to pay the ransom demand and took the case to WIPO (The World Intellectual Property Organization). WIPO then ruled against Keith and ordered that the domain name be transferred to Fox.

The lesson to learn here is that while you might be able to predict the future and register the domain name of something that will happen, don’t expect to profit from it. Register generic domain names. For example, Summer Movies.com or Best Movies.com (I have not visited these sites yet). The rule in the domain industry is that if the domain is registered in “Bad Faith” then the owner can lose the domain. Keith Malley is now labeled a cybersquatter and that will actually hurt his case on any other domains that he is challenged on. Keith got off easy, there is a law on the books that allows Fox to sue for damages of up to $100,000. Keith would have looked pretty stupid had Fox sued. Fox has a great case and can actually still sue if they want. They did the quick thing and went through an ICANN UDRP procedure to get the domain name quickly. They have lost a lot of visitors that went to that domain name. I am sure they were confused to see Keith’s web page instead of information about the movie.

On a personal note, I can’t wait for the movie to open this Friday. Every industry in the world is affected by domain names, The Simpsons Movie.com is just another example of how everything will have a domain name in the future.

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.

George Kirikos points out that the WIPO case regarding British Museum.org was decided based on a default judgment because the respondent didn’t reply. All looks fair until one looks closer at the facts. They list the defendant as, “British Museum Resources, Limited, West Bay, George Town, Kentucky, United States of America”. One problem, the Defendant lives in KY the Country not KY the US State. I doubt due process was observed in this case if the notification went to the wrong address. This would make the ruling null and void.

Registrant Organization:British Museum Resources, Ltd.
Registrant Street1:P.O. Box 115
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:West Bay
Registrant State/Province:George Town
Registrant Postal Code:WB
Registrant Country:KY

WIPO should try the case again and revoke its current decision. I have sent a note to WIPO panelist Brigitte Joppich that decided the case. I will give an update on what she does.

Name.com and its sister company, Spot Domains LLC, have been accused of violating the anit-cybersquating act by registering over 40 domain typos using the Neiman Marcus trademark. Neiman Marcus is seeking over $4,000,000+ in damages and also injunctive relief. Neiman Marcus just settled its earlier case with Dotster and it appears they are looking for more domain tasters to sink their teeth into. In the filings in U.S. District Court in Denver, they asked for $100,000 per domain. In our own research, it appears that Domain Tasters in 2002 were looking for generic words or phrases that they could monetize, but since then most of the viable words and phrases that could be monitized have been registered. Domain Tasters of 2007 aren’t finding a lot of generic words and phrases any more, however they are finding typos of famous brands that are monetizing well. For example, Well Fergo Bank.com was registered by a Domain Taster yesterday.

As part of the settlement with Dotster, they agree to stop registering names similar to Neiman Marcus. Dotster also agreed to suspended Domain Tasting, and I bet that Name.com will have to suspend Domain Tasting as part of its settlement too. At any given time, more then 5 million domains are tied up in Domain Tasting, however lawsuits have been bringing those numbers down. Maltuzi located in California is another Domain Taster that just got sued by Microsoft. The registrar for Maltuzi is Name King, and upon the Microsoft lawsuit, Name King suspended Domain Tasting for all its clients. Name King had facilated Domain Tasting for a few select customers.

Many Domain Tasters have been masking their whois or using shell companies to reduce their liability, but as we have seen in the Microsoft lawsuit, they name the defendants as unknown “John Does.” Lawyers use this type of lawsuits to obtain identities through subpoenas and then can sue the people they find.

Mark Albers of Florida is the owner of WickedRadio.com. However a radio station out of Wisconsin called Wicked Radio has a problem with that. The radio station in Wisconsin registered WickedRadio.org on Nov 29th, 2004 but Mark registered WickedRadio.com on Nov 10th, 2005. Clearly Mr. Albers registered his domain after Wicked Radio registered their domain, so should he be forced to give them the domain?

The easy uneducated answer is, yes, without looking closer. But we used our wayback machine to see some history on the domain and it looks like the answer is actually no.

WickedRadio.org	WickedRadio.com
Radio.org" width="250" height="258"/>	Radio.com" width="250" height="314"/>

WickedRadio.com is just a parking page. Everybody hates a parking page but parking pages are legitimate businesses too. It appears someone else had registered Wicked Radio back in 2002. Our records are not clear who, but that person failed to pay the renewal fees in 2005 and the domain was caught by Pool.com. The radio station or a DJ named “MarchHare” posted a long rant on their website asking visitors to harass Mr. Albers.

It appears that the owner of www.wickedradio.com is not wanting to work with Wicked Radio in our trying to purchase that domain for a reasonable price. We are now appealing to all our listeners to help join the fight against domain squatting and outright being lame. This Mr Mark Albers is showing the world how bad he really is at doing business. This information will be forwarded to the Isthmus, and all of the Indymedia.org media outlets, and to fox news. Mark Albers is doing nothing more then being childish with something he has gained in what seems to be foul intentions. If Mr Albers was going to put up a real website he should have done that by now. And what kind of website would it be if it was going to be like he said “In addition, my plans to make a functional website at this domain that is unrelated in any way to the website run by you. If you choose to pursue legal action against me, I will of course defend my interests.” Well what does that say? What can he possible setup using wickedradio.com that has nothing to do with what goes on here? If it has to do with low power fm, Pirate radio, Podcasting, Shoutcast streaming, or any number of other things realting to radio on and off the internet then he would be scamming me out of visitors and we all know that is the case. I get numurous emails every week about people accidentally going to wickedradio.com instead of wickedradio.org. So Mr Albers if you read this in the media I hope you are satisfied with defeating a small non-profit donation based community sponsored radio outfit. And I can only pray that this information falls into the hands of any potential customer you may have. I have researched Mr Mark Albers work and what he does for a living and he is a sham. Please pass this along we need to do something as not just Americans but as a Planet to stop domain squatting and have some sort of international rule about what people can do with domain names. If you would like to contact Mr Mark Albers and let him know that what he is doing is wrong here is his information.

markalbers[at]adelphia.net, 12518 World Cup Lane, Wellington, FL, US, 33414 (561) 629 3275

There was someone else that owned the .COM version prior to the radio station purchasing the .ORG. The radio station didn’t just forget to register the .com – it was already taken when they looked at buying it. They should have placed a backorder on the service and they likely would have been the owner of the domain in less then a month. Instead they are bitter because they have branded themselves the .ORG and customers get confused.

The radio station, in our view, is picking on the legitimate owner of the .COM name. Reverse Hijacking is common but it is unusual that the hijacker resorts to going on the air and asking listeners to harass the current owner.