Malls.eu was released yesterday and it was snatched almost instantaneously by cyberwarehouser Coursers UK. The .eu WHOIS for the domain shows it as being registered to Coursers UK with the “registrar” being Ben Levac/ Reg/Ca Enterprises Inc. And the registration time: 11:00.
As had been previously reported, Michael Berkens/Worldwide Media Inc had tried and failed to register Malls.eu with a UK front company and a Begian trademark.
At this stage it is hard to take EURid seriously. But it will be interesting to see where malls.eu ends up - will it be auctioned on Pool.com? Will Worldwide Media Inc get its hands on it? Does anyone think that EURid is a competent registry?
Tags: .EU, Domains, .eu Fiasco, Internet Statistics, Eurid, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames
Written by John McCormac on August 23rd, 2006 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Domains And Statistics.
Microsoft filed suits against cybersquatters who have been targeting its trademarks. The suits are being taken against a number of cybersquatters under the US
Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. This legislation allows for up to $100K statutory damages for someone who registers, uses or traffics in a domain that is identical to, confusingly similar to or dilutive of an existing trademark. And given Microsoft’s popularity, many of its trademarks are targets of cybersquatters.
While only a few suits have been taken against named businesses, there are also “John Doe” suits which are seeking to have the owners of 217 domains revealed. These domains are using Whois Privacy services to hide the names of the registrants. The outcome of these suits will be very important for the domain business because they will decide on the level of protection that these Whois Privacy services can provide. Most of these services have clauses in their contracts that cover wrong doing. But what Microsoft and indeed anyone could argue is that the use of a Whois Privacy service to obscure identity on such a scale is proof of wrong doing.
The move by Microsoft is interesting. But is Microsoft even aware the problem of its trademarks being cybersquatted in ccTLDs?
News.com report.
Tags: IrishBlogs, Domains, Microsoft, Internet Statistics, Cybersquatting, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames
Written by John McCormac on August 23rd, 2006 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Domains And Statistics.