High profile legal disputes from the past...

[thepurplecow]

Ok, sorry if this is not really suitable for this forum but I wanted to post it somewhere. Some of you may already know of these legal disputes which happened in the past, but I've just discovered them and was quite amused by a few.

- peta.org: An organization entitled "People Eating Tasty Animals" obtained the peta.org domain name, much to the disgust of the better know People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. This domain name was suspended, but as of May 2000 the domain name was still registered in the name of People Eating Tasty Animals. (It is now owned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.)

- candyland.com: Both Hasbro and an adult entertainment provider desired the candyland.com domain name. Hasbro was too late to register the name itself, but it is never too late to sue (well, almost never). The domain name is now safely in the hands of Hasbro.

- mcdonalds.com: This domain name was taken by an author from Wired magazine who was writing a story on the value of domain names. In his article, the author requested that people contact him at [email protected] with suggestions of what to do with the domain name. In exchange for returning the domain name to McDonalds, the author convinced the company to make a charitable contribution.

 

[labrocca]

I still don't agree with the candyland decision.

 

[Dave_Z]

Couple other possibly "relevant" legal disputes:

- nissan.com: the Japanese car maker made an offer to buy the name from its
registrant Mr. Uzi Nissan, he refused to sell, then was sued when the site had
shown a car ad. Last decision was Mr. Nissan keeps the domain name with a
limit not to display commercial links to car products, both parties paid costs of
litigation from their own pockets.

- mikerowesoft.com: a 17-year old registered the domain name thinking it was
cool but got the software giant's attention. Lots of negative publicity due to
how Microsoft handled it, but matter was eventually settled amicably.

- fallwell.com: registrant created a site protesting Reverend Jerry Falwell. Mr.
Falwell filed a UDRP and won, registrant filed suit in Court, lost the initial one,
but decision was later overturned and remains in registrant's hands.

- barcelona.com: a Spain-based company filed a UDRP that successfully got
the domain name from its registrant. Registrant filed suit and subsequently got
it back after gaining a favourable court decision.

I'll post more as soon as I can remember.

 

[accent]

My all time favorite:

A cat named Baroness Penelope Cat of Nash (with assistance from a human) registered mymorganstanleyplatinum.com as part of a class given by the human about how corporations do not protect their domain rights properly.

Baroness Penelope argued well, but alas, the giant bank prevailed.

 

[-LB-]

I still don't agree with the candyland decision.

Agreed with you there.

 

[Dave_Z]

And oh yeah, I forgot to post what's arguably the most famous one of all: the
sex.com saga. It's got all the elments one could ever ask for.

 

[Ronald Regging]

anyone have a link to the peta.org decision? personally i'd prefer a site about eating tasty animals

 

[smartpc]

candyland.com is it a hasbro trade mark hell willy wonker could have claimed rights to that.....

mcdonalds.com i would have changed my name by depol just to hold onto that.....lol

check out bigmac-dot-eu lmao..... they tried to get this during sunrise and got denied guy pipped me to the post by 5 minutes on the reg when it was made available....but even funnier it was free for 1hr before he regg`d it and those well paid execs at Macs never even regg`d it after trying to get it during sunrise doooh!!!

 

[AdoptableDomains]

Don't forget about WWF.org (World Wildlife Fund) who sued the wresting group to change their name to something else. This predated domain names, but resulted in domains changing hands. Oddly enough, WWF.com is back to a wrestling domain that appears to be a parked page.

 

[bluesman]

If there was a problem regarding candyland.com, then Hasbro doesn't EVEN wanna see the porn site I made with my recent buy of chutesandladders.com! :sold:

But seriously, my Domain Debacle faves would have to include anything involving Tom "Crazy Alien Boy" Cruise or those various related Scientology/Scamintology spoof sites. Sweet stuff! :hearts:

I guess I just like to see anything making fun of how idiots the world over continue futile fights against each other to see who has the coolest imaginary best friend.

 

[BinderGang]

Wouldn't the PETA thing be covered by the ability to legally create parodies?

It's quite obvious it wasn't a "real" group and was just created to parody the real PETA.

 

[bluesman]

Sounds like the original owners got fed up when they were hit with that bogus suspension. After that they probably didn't figure it was worth all the bother, just to keep a gag alive to bug PETA spokesperson Pam Anderson.

Speaking of which, don't miss my upcoming new domain - PEPA .com - People Eating Pam Anderson.

It already has lots of "members"!

 

[Dave_Z]

Wouldn't the PETA thing be covered by the ability to legally create parodies?

The PETA domain name dispute was among the early ones that wasn't readily
resolved. However, it was arguably one that helped draw the lines on how a
similar dispute can be resolved in the future.

A lot has changed since then.

 

[markmiddleton]

Oddly enough, WWF.com is back to a wrestling domain that appears to be a parked page.

Words fail me... after all that went on over that trademark.

Good to know apathy wins out again in the end.

 

[The Equivocate]

Words fail me... after all that went on over that trademark.

Good to know apathy wins out again in the end.

Another funny thing is that WWFE.com is a parked page that says "Your wildlife conservation source" but all the links are wrestling related. For a short time, WWF wrestling called themselves WWFE (World Wrestling Federation Entertainment).

As for the WWF.com domain, I guess what happened is that when the World Wildlife Fund won the suit, they either failed to register it or let it expire after a year, and then some guy snapped it for some ridiculously low bid, and then sold it off and someone opened up a pro wrestling discussion forum on it for a couple months, but then someone's lawyer must've gotten to them because it disappeared out of the blue one day to the parking page.

 

[-LB-]

WWF (WWE) Never called themselves WWFE. The only names they've ever been through is WWWF, WWF and WWE.

Besides, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment doesn't really sound like a pro wrestling company so I don't think they'd choose that anyways... It doesn't sound right.

 

[Six]

WWF (WWE) Never called themselves WWFE. The only names they've ever been through is WWWF, WWF and WWE.

Besides, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment doesn't really sound like a pro wrestling company so I don't think they'd choose that anyways... It doesn't sound right.

No, they never called themselves it on TV, but the company itself was called World Wrestling Federation Entertainment for a while I believe, and after the legal case with the World Wildlife Fund, they obviously just took out the 'Federation' part.

 

[bluesman]

There was also that domain run by all the "wrestling widows" out there, fed up with husbands who wasted every night watching all that McMahon-inspired mania:

WIFE = Wives Infuriated by Freakish Entertainment.

(Okay, maybe it wasn't a real domain.)