Domain and Trademark Blog

The U.S. Congress is expected to take a closer look at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) new generic top-level domain (new gTLD) regime.
According to World Trademark Review, the subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet has summoned ICANN to a hearing on May 4.
Domain name space expansion is on the …

Two Australian cities are competing for the right to be the first to operate a generic top-level domain (gTLD).
Local authorities in Sydney and Melbourne are fighting it out for the honor, which is possible as a result of recently-adopted rules.
According to The Australian, the New South Wales Premier’s Office has confirmed that it wishes to …

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has stripped ownership of the XPole.com domain name from a South Korean Internet user.
Seoul-based Jeongyong Cho has been forced to hand over the rights to the Web address to Vertical Leisure Ltd., which holds the XPole trademark in several countries.
Mr. Cho was found to hold no trademarks relating to …

As the countdown to the Royal Wedding continues, a Canadian blogger has snapped up the rights to www.KateMiddleton.com.
Greg Kureluk, along with a couple of associates, has secured the domain name, and believes the address could become the future URL for all matters relating to the future Queen of England.
A website has been launched using the …

The U.S. has seized several poker websites after charging a number of key industry players — including Full Tilt and PokerStars — with bank fraud, illegal gambling and laundering billions of dollars.
The domain names of the three biggest sites to be hit by the fraud investigation have, however, been returned to their owners temporarily so …

The U.S. firm Chief Architect has won a domain dispute that it filed against another company, CAD Australia.
Chief Architect’s dispute revolved around CAD Australia’s use of the chiefarchitect.com.au domain name.
The firm claimed that CAD Australia continued to use the domain name after the expiration of a reseller agreement between the two companies.
WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation …

As the British royal wedding edges closer, Kate Middleton’s family is garnering more public attention and has responded by taking steps to protect its image.
The family has registered the domain names of their other two children, pippamiddleton.com and jamesmiddleton.com, reports the Daily Mail, preventing the names from being used by anyone looking to get publicity …

Domain name disputes are on the rise, with the number of such cases having increased by 24% last year, according figures from the U.S.-based National Arbitration Forum (FORUM).
Data from FORUM, which is approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to provide domain dispute resolution services, show that it handled 2,177 cases …

The first controversial .xxx Web addresses have gone live after years of negotiation.
A suffix for pornography-only sites was first proposed 11 years ago, and the first sites using it went live around midnight on Friday, April 15.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the U.S. Department of Commerce were both involved in …

Businesses have been urged to give plenty of thought to the domain names they register when setting up a new website.
Tara West, brand monitoring and protection adviser at Impact Media, said domain names can have global implications for businesses, so it is important to maximize their marketing value.
Writing in the company blog, she highlighted the …