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news Booking.com case picked up by Supreme Court

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sarah.kate

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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Oh, Richmond. Never change. 😑

Thank you for sharing this article!
 
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Thank you for sharing the link. It was interesting to read it!
 
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This is not the first case. I once mentioned in NP answering other threads that trademark+com will be able to apply for a trademark for brand protection.It has been successfully implemented in China 3 years ago.but i think this report will be very beneficial for top-level domains, which will reduce the barriers from buyers.
 
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Thanks for sharing the article
 
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Worth it, on how to secure your brand investments in TLDs imo
 
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Worth it, on how to secure your brand investments in TLDs imo
TLDs has only investment and communication properties and no brand attributes.IMO
 
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Don't understand the argument, perhaps someone can tell me why BOOKING.COM shouldn't be able to secure a trademark on "BOOKING.COM"?

It includes ".com", so the generic argument is out the window...

To me, that's like saying you can't trademark BOOKINGGBEWUVGWUG because it include "GBEWUVGWUG" after it.
 
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I have to admit that at first reading, I thought they registered the trademark for the "Booking" word. But after reading more carefully, AND after looking at their US trademarks, I see that they have the trademarks for "Booking.com".
I think this is totally legit, because the trademark is clearly limited to their domain "Booking.com" and not for the generic word "Booking".

The funniest part of all this, is that a chinese company registered a trademark at the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the word "Booking" and it was accepted in 2018...
 
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The only issue with these trademarks I can see is if someone registers a .com trademark for a domain they don't own.
 
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The only issue with these trademarks I can see is if someone registers a .com trademark for a domain they don't own.

Excellent point
 
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My concern is what might happen to the owners of FlightBooking.com, HotelBooking.com, TripBooking.com etc. etc. if "booking.com" is granted a trademark. Will those domains suddenly be infringing?
 
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My concern is what might happen to the owners of FlightBooking.com, HotelBooking.com, TripBooking.com etc. etc. if "booking.com" is granted a trademark. Will those domains suddenly be infringing?
I don't see any concern. The trademark is only for "booking.com" NOT for "FlightBooking.com" "HotelBooking.com" nor "TripBooking.com".
 
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The only issue with these trademarks I can see is if someone registers a .com trademark for a domain they don't own.
If someone registers a .com trademark for a domain they don't own, that would be simply not a valid Trademark.
You cannot register a Trademark for something you don't own, and hoping to be a valid one.
 
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Trademark is like a magnet in internet space.
The domain that has been registered today merely may not be free from the trademark issue.
There is a probability that someone may apply a trademark for the word in the future.
Just my opinion

Thanks
DpakH
 
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I don't see any concern. The trademark is only for "booking.com" NOT for "FlightBooking.com" "HotelBooking.com" nor "TripBooking.com".

They already own Booking.com, so what is the purpose in getting a Trademark on "booking.com" unless they are trying to go after infringement of the name. There are many ways they could claim these domain are infringing: Confusion, Name Tarnishment, Name Dilution.

There is no doubt that if I have PhoneApple.com Apple is going to have an issue.
 
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Hmmmm. What about DisneyVideoGames.com ?
How many degrees can a company go? I understand especially if the shoes were reversed but if I had a site that was trying to generate money from ad sales through SEO etc to send them to a company it seems like that company should be paying me! Lol

is there a guideline to this? I don’t think there is a trademark lawyer in Alabama! Why would a registrar sell something if it’s blatant to someone who is a novice especially?
 
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They already own Booking.com, so what is the purpose in getting a Trademark on "booking.com" unless they are trying to go after infringement of the name. There are many ways they could claim these domain are infringing: Confusion, Name Tarnishment, Name Dilution.

There is no doubt that if I have PhoneApple.com Apple is going to have an issue.

I see the purpose of getting the Trademark on "booking.com" for example for marketing or merchandise purposes.

So, only they can sell a T-Shirt with the "Booking.com" words. So no other company can sell T-Shirts with "Booking.com" in the t-shirt.

At least, that's what I see.

They are not asking to register the generic word "Booking", they just registered the "Booking.COM" Trademark, just because they own the domain .com so they just want to trademark it, so they can merchandise their mark (their domain).

Also, they have never filed a UDRP against any domain just for containing the word "Booking". Only once, and for a domain containing "BookingCom", it was for Bookingcom.xyz.
 
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Hmmmm. What about DisneyVideoGames.com ?
How many degrees can a company go? I understand especially if the shoes were reversed but if I had a site that was trying to generate money from ad sales through SEO etc to send them to a company it seems like that company should be paying me! Lol

is there a guideline to this? I don’t think there is a trademark lawyer in Alabama! Why would a registrar sell something if it’s blatant to someone who is a novice especially?
Disney have registered the "Disney" word trademark.
 
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So what does that mean exactly? I am gaining an understanding of the obvious but do they own the whole phrase as a .com? Or are you implying you don’t think my question is applicable since we are talking about domains not words. I just do not know enough about it but it’s a very interesting topic to me as I learn. If a song or movie has a word in it they have trademarked can I get in trouble for having a domain with the word? Such as Deniro and the movie “Casino”? Depending on some of this I need to be spending more at the USPTO than on new domains getting phrases!?
 
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So what does that mean exactly? I am gaining an understanding of the obvious but do they own the whole phrase as a .com? Or are you implying you don’t think my question is applicable since we are talking about domains not words. I just do not know enough about it but it’s a very interesting topic to me as I learn. If a song or movie has a word in it they have trademarked can I get in trouble for having a domain with the word? Such as Deniro and the movie “Casino”? Depending on some of this I need to be spending more at the USPTO than on new domains getting phrases!?
In my opinion, that means that you can get problems with a domain containing "Disney" because that solely word is already trademarked, and Disney is a very popular and known company by everybody. So they can argue that you have registered the domain in bad faith.
 
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So what does that mean exactly? I am gaining an understanding of the obvious but do they own the whole phrase as a .com? Or are you implying you don’t think my question is applicable since we are talking about domains not words. I just do not know enough about it but it’s a very interesting topic to me as I learn. If a song or movie has a word in it they have trademarked can I get in trouble for having a domain with the word? Such as Deniro and the movie “Casino”? Depending on some of this I need to be spending more at the USPTO than on new domains getting phrases!?

DisneyVideoGames.com infringes Disney trademark (obvious)

HotelBooking.com infringes Booking.com trademark (certainly a potential)

The issue is that we don't know what it will mean for the future. No company has been granted a trademark that contains a generic word + .com before, so who knows how this will all play out.

I don't think they are seeking a trademark to stop t-shirt sellers though.
 
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Anyway, really, I am just posting my own opinion. I am not a lawyer.
The issue is that we don't know what it will mean for the future. No company has been granted a trademark that contains a generic word + .com before, so who knows how this will all play out.

I don't think they are seeking a trademark to stop t-shirt sellers though.
OK, if this is true, then for me better to NOT allow the "booking.com" trademark.
Maybe I am wrong and if it's for a better protection for domain owners to not allow that trademark, of course I agree with this.
 
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In my opinion, that means that you can get problems with a domain containing "Disney" because that solely word is already trademarked, and Disney is a very popular and known company by everybody. So they can argue that you have registered the domain in bad faith.
Thank y’all for the replies. Well I didn’t buy anything in bad faith so I kind of feel like ICANN should prevent the “obvious” from being sold....I guess now that I have started to read some more it makes sense but it is a fine line in a lot of instances as far as I can tell so I may end up at SCOTUS one day. Disney is one thing but how much can some monster size companies monopolize?
I may Trademark Strippers and a couple of cities today;)
 
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