News Round Up

Domain name disputes: from fiction to football

Fans of JK Rowling's famous Harry Potter books who hoped to access the author's website by (mis-)typing or , were disenchanted to find themselves on a cybersquatter's site, bombarded with pop-up advertising. So the author took the case to the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. On November 22, 2004, the WIPO appointed panelist, Beatrice Jarka, ordered that the domain names be transferred to Joanne K. Rowling. The panelist found that Rowling had established unregistered trademark rights in the mark JK ROWLING, having sold millions of books under that name; and that the registrant of the disputed domain names, an individual from Uruguay with a history of typosquatting, had registered the domain names in bad faith in order to take financial advantage of the many people attempting to reach a JK Rowling-related website. (Typosquatting refers to the registering of domain names similar to well-known brands, but with a deliberate mis-spelling, for example. using an adjacent letter on the keyboard.)WIPO's Arbitration and Mediation Center has dealt with 7,000 cases under the fast-track, low-cost Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) procedure, with parties from some 120 different countries. These include a host of famous names, such as Brazilian football star Ronaldinho of FC Barcelona, who scored a 1 - 0 victory against a U.S. domain name broker in December 2004.

In a UDRP proceeding, 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 Center appoints an independent legal expert who considers submissions from the trademark owner and the domain name holder. If the expert determines that the Complainant owns trademark rights, the domain name is confusingly similar to the trademark, the Respondent has no legitimate interest in the domain name, and the domain name is registered and used in bad faith, then the expert can order the transfer of the domain name to the Complainant.

Trademark protection for Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela has also been troubled by cybersquatters. His foundation recently had the web site www.nelsonmandela.com shut down. Moreover, Mr. Mandela has found that...