Heitner Legal
Under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d), a defendant is liable for cybersquatting if it registers, traffics in, or uses a domain name that is confusingly similar to a third party’s trademark with “bad faith intent to profit from that mark.” A successful claim under the ACPA requires that three elements be […]
Have you purchased your .xxx domain yet? I am only half joking. Many companies (big and small) that have absolutely no relation to the pornography industry have been buying up their tradenames at the .xxx level. They have been reserving those domains from registration (see: Walmart.xxx) so that third parties cannot scoop up the domains and […]
Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) include .com, .net, .org, .edu, and other variations in what is considered to be the back-end of a domain name. In 2000, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) introduced .aero, .biz, .coop, .inof, .museum, .name, and .pro. Then, in 2005, .cat, .jobs, .mobi, .tel, and .travel were added […]
Ever since domain names have been open for public registration, domain owners have been guilty of cybersquatting on other peoples’/companies names. Some cybersquatting cases are more clear than others. If I register the domain name BurgerKing.com, it is unlikely that I can defend it by showing a legitimate use for owning the URL. However, if […]
Guccio Gucci founded the Italian fashion and leather goods label Gucci in Florence in 1921. Since then, it has become a very fashionable and profitable brand throughout the world. The brand holds many registrations for the trademark GUCCI throughout the world. It was not pleased to find out that someone had registered multiple domain names that […]
On October 24, 1999, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). The UDRP incorporated by contract into registration agreements for .com, .org, .net and some other domain names. The focus was on regulating bad faith cybersquatting on trademarks. Clause 4 of the UDRP discusses the Mandatory […]