Domain and Trademark Blog

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has achieved and exceeded many of its goals for the financial year, it has been announced.
Following a strong 12 months, the agency now has its lowest patent backlog number in five years, with 669,625 applications yet to be examined.
The USPTO trademarks organization also met or …

The members of Canadian band The Tea Party have decided they will sell their domain name – theteaparty.com.
Last month, reports emerged suggesting the 90s’ rockers may cash in on the domain name, following the rise of the Tea Party political movement in the US.
The band were said to be unhappy with …

US online dating company Plentyoffish Media has failed in its bid to assert trademark rights in the UK, it has been reported.
According to the Register, the firm claimed it was entitled to rights over UK-registered trademarks because it has a high number of website visitors from Britain.
However, the UK High Court said …

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) accounts have been approved by an independent auditor.
Moss Adams LLP has given the domain name regulator an unqualified “clean” opinion for the 12th successive year.
This means the auditor failed to identify any matter that would require it to alter the extent of …

A unique, category-defining domain name is to become available on the open market for the first time, it has been revealed.
Domain name investors may be interested to learn that the company.net domain name has been put up for sale.
Luc Biggs, who owns the domain name, said the web address will be auctioned …

A reality TV star is seeking to assert his trademark rights through the courts, according to reports.
Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino – a cast member on Jersey Shore – is suing a lifestyle company for allegedly cashing in on his ‘GTL’ trademark.
Reports suggest his lawyer is pressing ahead with a lawsuit after initially sending …

The registry for Belize has recently announced that they will begin offering the domain extension .co.bz. The registry currently offers the top-level .bz, .com.bz, .net.bz, and .org.bz. This extension will not be launched in traditional phases but instead will become generally available to all on October 17, 2011. This launch will be first-come, first-served and …

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is continuing to work towards ensuring the participation of developing economies in the new top level generic domain name (gTLDs) regime.
ICANN is seeking public comment to help shape the Joint Applicant Support final report, which is due to be published in December …

Businesses can derive a number of benefits from owning their own domain name, it has been suggested.
Writing for SmithFam.com, Marty Foley explained that without a domain name, organizations’ email and web addresses will generally be based on the domain name of their host or Internet service provider.
“Having your own domain name is …

Central Basin Municipal Water District has filed a federal lawsuit against the Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD) for cybersquatting and trademark infringement.
WRD has been charged with unlawfully using Central Basin website domain names to create fake Central Basin websites designed to confuse and mislead the public.
Domain names including centralbasin.net, central-basin.net …