In the News

Lance Armstrong Defeats Cybersquatters

The American cycling champion, Lance Armstrong, who fought cancer with the same determination that made him a seven-time winner of the Tour de France, has notched up another victory - this time against cybersquatters.

The California-based respondents had been cashing in on the popularity of LIVESTRONG bracelets. These distinctive yellow rubber bracelets are sold by the nonprofit Lance Armstrong Foundation, which the cycle champion set up in 1997 to fund cancer-related research and to support cancer survivorship. CSA Marketing and Chris Angeles had registered three domain names incorporating the term livestrong, from which they were selling the bracelets for commercial gain. The Lance Armstrong Foundation brought two cases before the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center for resolution under the fast, low-cost Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) procedure.

The independent panel appointed by the Center ruled on October 13 that ownership of the domain names should be transferred to the Foundation. The panelists did not mince their words as they concluded: "There is nothing, in short, to persuade the Panel that the registration and use of the domain names was anything other than opportunistic and abusive conduct of a kind that the [UDRP] Policy was designed to correct."

The Foundation first registered LIVESTRONG as a trademark in 2004. Under the UDRP procedure, a trademark owner whose mark has been registered as a domain name by someone else can file a complaint with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. The panel can order the transfer of the domain name to the Complainant if it determines that the Complainant owns trademark rights, that the domain name is confusingly similar to the trademark, that the Respondent has no legitimate interest in the domain name, and that the domain name is registered and used in bad faith.

See http://arbiter.wipo.int for more information on the Arbitration and Mediation Center, which specializes in cases arising out of intellectual property and technology transactions

"Thought Thieves" Film Competition

The challenge to budding film-makers - issued by Microsoft Limited with the United Kingdom Film Education foundation and other partners - was to produce a short film...