Intellectual Property Law

Yes, It Does Seem Like A Strange Decision

By Marty Schwimmer

This DomainNameWire article points out two oddities about this UDRP regarding the name THEMOVIEINSIDER.COM.  The first is that complainant alleges common law rights in the mark THEMOVIEINSIDER.COM dating a month prior to its registering the domain name THEMOVIEINSIDER.COM.  Possible, but probably a typo.  The second is that the name in question is alleged to be inactive (for purposes of whether there is a bona fide use of the name), and actively hosting a page o' links, for purposes of bad faith.  This may be a distinction without a difference for the purposes of 'good faith offering', but imho, an inactive domain name doesn't resolve and a domain name that merely displays click-through ads is an active domain name that merely displays click-through ads.  Probably an imprecise use of terms, rather than an error.

The NAF has come in for some criticism in the past for alleged 'cut and paste' tactics.  This sort of thing doesn't help its image.

Full post as published by Trademark Blog on October 28, 2010 (boomark / email).