UDRP shopify.ai

[Igor Gabrielan]

Today the company Shopify started a dispute with me regarding the name shopify.ai .
I have many excellent arguments, which I will describe later.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

Although I am sure of my victory, especially in the Kyiv District Court, in order not to be distracted from more important matters, I officially applied to Anguilla for a voluntary transfer of the name to Shopify.

 

[tonyk2000]

I officially applied to Anguilla for a voluntary transfer of the name to Shopify

You likely also need to contact the complainant (their lawyer, who signed the paperwork), as they need to act to receive a domain, and I think there are some forms that should to be submitted by both parties for udrp to be terminated. But, do not discuss who is right or wrong, do not disclose your feelings ("I'm right, but.."), do not tell them about district courts or your desire not to let them make money. Someting short and polite...

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

I hate to mess with a lawyer after he's been digging through my dirty laundry.
I can't get over this disgust.
Let them decide on this issue without me.

 

[tonyk2000]

I hate to mess with a lawyer after he's been digging through my dirty laundry.
Let them decide on this issue without me.

Do not forget that in most cases such large companies are unaware that they started udrp. It is all done by lawyers. The lawyer found your domain. The lawyer sent a bill to their client shopify. Shopify paid. It is likely that nobody @ shopify really wants your domain, and no human being at shopify bothers about Anguilla domain...!

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

In any case, I will not contact this lawyer.
You know that our customs forbid contact with certain people.
I declared my readiness to voluntarily give up the domain if they change lawyers.

 

[tonyk2000]

I will not contact this lawyer.

Your choice. I also hate dealing with corporate lawyers, but sometimes it is inevitable. Without their lawyer, the udrp will proceed.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

Let them continue. Then I will fight to the bitter end.

 

[frank-germany]

If I can register a trademark "Shopify" for confectionery in Ukraine, can I register a domain name shopify.ai for this in reserve? I can register a domain name first and then a trademark, especially since the trademark registration process is long.

you should have asked yourself that question long ago
then use it for Ukrainian site for confectionery
and register a Ukrainian trademark shopify for confectionery
long ago
but you are stupid a f
so you didn't

and keep on asking superfluous questions here
so all the best to you

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

Bye, mossy idiot.

 

[Altetra]

Actually you can fight for this domain, I doubt they will like to darken their reputation by attacking a Ukrainian citizen during this hard times, believe me al media will shoot them in the face with this!

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

Although objectively I had great chances, but I already gave them a name without bureaucracy, I simply gave the Auth code, and they took it.
I don’t even have time to ride skiing now, I really love skiing (by the way, I have names ski.ai skis.ai), there is no time to fight these hooks.

 

[ixex]

In my view, there is no value to any entity but to Shopify.
Also no buyer will want to legally hassle with Shopify.
Shopify will come after any domain ..extensions are irrelevant, business setting, etc. where that moniker handle is being used, especially in a commercial setting where someone else is profiting off of the name.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

And they replaced the lawyer at my request.
Although I did not concern with the new lawyer either, the zone administrator handed him the name.

 

[tonyk2000]

I simply gave the Auth code, and they took it.

Make sure that udrp is terminated. It should be the case, but... Did you receive any sort of termination notification from Canadian disputes centre?

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

Make sure that udrp is terminated. It should be the case, but... Did you receive any sort of termination notification from Canadian disputes centre?

I didn't receive the termination notification.

 

[tonyk2000]

I didn't receive the termination notification.

So, a possible scenario:
- you contacted somebody at shopify, and they gladly took the domain
- nobody asked Canadian centre to terminate the process
- UDRP will continue, the panel will be formed, they will decide to transfer the domain based on original information
- the decision will be public, with all negative consequences

There are published steps to terminate udrps. However, you may probably email the Canadian Centre (case administrator), show them current whois, and let them know that you already transferred the domain to the complainant.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

I'll try next week.

 

[jberryhill]

So, a possible scenario:

You should have a look at the terms here:

http://whois.ai/faq.html

While we want lots of .ai domain sales as it raises significant money for The Government of Anguilla, we do not want any scammer domains tarnishing the reputation of Anguilla or ".ai". If people know of scam sites in ".ai" domains please report them. The Government of Anguilla reserves the right to remove or suspend any domain. This is usually due to one of the following or similar scamish actions:

I like the quaint use of "scamish".

Be that as it may, I doubt they are very particular about the UDRP locking requirements and, yep, it's a good possibility they just went ahead and transferred the name.

The interesting part is that CIIDRC doesn't have to stop the UDRP case merely because the name has been transferred. The only way that can happen is under UDRP Rule 17, which requires both parties to agree to terminate the proceeding. Given how happy Igor has probably made the lawyers on the other side with his antics, they would probably be inclined to simply let Igor thrash around, and if the CIIDRC asks, to say that they want the decision anyway. The CIIDRC would have no choice but to allow the case to proceed, and leave it up to a panelist what he or she makes of the situation.

The UDRP providers don't really know much about how the domain name system functions on a practical level, but they are pretty good at reading the UDRP rules and understanding when they can, or cannot, terminate a proceeding.

 

[jberryhill]

Although objectively I had great chances

You are the only person in this thread who believes that. "Shopify" is not a word, and English is not German - we don't just string things together and make up words as we go along. The arguments along the lines "putting -ify on the end of a word is normal" or "someone else would have registered it" do not mean anything in a UDRP dispute. Since English is not your native language, you are probably not a good judge of what looks normal in English and what doesn't. "Shopify" is not some sort of existing or inevitable word.

It doesn't make sense because what would it mean? To make something shoppy? To turn something into a shop which was not a shop? It just does not work as an English word, and I don't think you are at all qualified on the subject of what "feels right" to English speakers. There's a loudmouth self-proclaimed expert domainer on Twitter who doesn't realize that his English sounds like a bad spam email. Hey, I get it, I can barely get by in broken Spanish and your English is phenomenal. But surely you understand that native speakers have a "feel" for what works and what doesn't. Yes, we have a lot of "-ify" words like "beautify", to make or increase a thing's beauty; "diversify", to make something diverse; humidify, to make something more humid. But you can't just stick -ify on the end of any English noun and come up with something that makes any sense. Shopify, to make something more like a shop? In most cases, the root word also ends or combines with -ty or -ity in a pair, like qualify/quality diversify/diversity humidify/humidity dignify/dignity, but the point is there are words that work well with "-ify" and words that don't work well. Now, as a trademark, "shopify" is borderline suggestive/fanciful because if it was a word, then it would sort of fit the idea of turning your website into a store.
But, bottom line, it is not a word, any more than cybersquattiousness - which, yeah, you could work out a meaning (like, the quality of having a tendency to engage in cybersquatting), but it is just not a freaking word. Its awkwardocity exceeds its meaningness.

Additionally, trademarks are not about who "invented" some made-up word or whether it is shares a suffix with other words. "Coca-Cola" is just the names of two plant ingredients - coca and cola - which go into making it. So what? Who cares? The point is that many people around the world know exactly who and what "Coca-Cola" is.

Likewise, anybody on the planet who knows anything about e-commerce knows who Shopify is and what they do.

Look at your first sentence in this thread:

Today the company Shopify started a dispute with me regarding the name shopify.ai .

"the company Shopify" - What company Shopify? You don't say, "Shopify, an e-commerce platform provider" in order to give us some idea of just what this company might be. And you don't have to for a simple reason: We all know who Shopify is.

Your first sentence in this thread assumes the fact that your audience knows who you are talking about when you refer to "the company Shopify". That, right there, the way you said that, demonstrates that it is a strong and well known trademark. We all know that. We don't react by thinking, "Gosh, whomever could he be talking about? I mean, "shopify" could mean so many different things." No, the reaction is more along the lines of having someone come in complaining, "I just went to a face slapping contest and got my face slapped!" Yeah, what did you think was going to happen there?

You did not have great chances, and there is no one who agrees with you. Now, sure, if you had some sort of expertise in the UDRP, that wouldn't be much of a problem. I'm frequently the bearer of bad news to people who have overly optimistic ideas of how strong are their arguments and how good are their chances. But, then again, there is no one else on the planet who has defended as many UDRPs as I have, so I'm really not too bothered if someone who has never been involved with a UDRP disagrees with me.

But, you might notice that Namepros members usually tend to be on the optimistic side of these things. Someone will show up, post a truly awful domain name, and Namepros members will go on about ridiculous reasons why it would survive a UDRP. Certainly, you have to have noticed this over time.

So, given that general background, when you are getting feedback from several others here who are not usually among the loonies (although I could go either way on that with one of the folks above), and they are telling you that it is utterly ridiculous to believe that a junior domain registration of "Shopify" dot anything was going to work out well, then you should really take into account that, most of the time, these threads are practically cheering sections for questionable domains supported by flimsy arguments.

You can't simply take that sort of consistent disagreement as a mere offense to your pride and dismiss every one who disagrees with you as an idiot. Granted, their disagreement may be expressed in harsh ways, but it is a harsh world, and they are at least telling you their honest opinion, regardless of how dopey a lot of the opinions around here tend to be.

That is all. Good luck with the CIIDRC, and I hope that someday you see your money back from Epik.

 

[alop]

Shopify will work out fine