State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company,known as the largest automobile insurer in the United States,submitted a complaint to the National Arbitration Center ,requesting sixteen domain names to be transferred to them. The sixteen domain names are : statefarmjacksonville.com, statefarmhomestead.com, statefarmhollywood.com, statefarmgainesville.com, statefarmfortmyers.com, statefarmfloridakeys.com, statefarmfortlauderdale.com, statefarmdaytona.com, statefarmverobeach.com, statefarmtalahassee.com, statefarmstlucie.com, statefarmsarasota.com, statefarmmiami.com, statefarmkissmmee.com .
The complainant,State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company,is the owner of the “State Farm” mark,registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.Therefore,the company contends that the domain names are confusingly similar to its trademark.
Moreover,in the complaint,the company says that all the sixteen domain names resolve to a website featuring click-through links that further resolve to the websites of Complainant’s competitors in the insurance industry.
Having established that the respondent registered the domain name in bad faith,that the sixteen domain names are confusingly similar to the complainant’s mark and that the respondent does not have rights or legitimate interest in the disputed domain names ,the Panel ordered that all the domain names to be transferred from the respondent to the complainant.

Sony,one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, video game consoles, and information technology products,submitted a complaint to the National Arbitration Forum,claiming rights over sonycreativesoftwear.com domain name. The respondent,represented by Versata Software used the disputed domain name to operate featuring adult content.
Having registered the “Sony” mark with the USPTO,Sony proved that the domain name sonycreativesoftwear.com was confusingly similar to its mark.
Moreover,because the respondent failed to submit a response,the Panel found that Versata Software had no rights and legitimate interests in the disputed domain name.
The Panel also decided the domain name was registered and used in bad faith.
Therefore,it was decided the disputed domain name,sonycreativesoftwear.com,to be transferred to Sony.

The well known company,Victoria’s Secret,which is an American retailer of women’s wear,lingerie,shoes and beauty products, won the domain name victoriasecretshoes.com through arbitration. In the complaint submitted to the National Arbitration Forum,the company claims rights over the disputed domain name,saying that  victoriasecretshoes.com is confusingly similar to their mark and also,that the respondent registered and used it in bad faith.
Because the respondent used the domain name for an website offering a number of links to several commercial websites including websites offering products in competition with complainant’s goods,no wonder the respondent is thought to have registered and used the domain name in bad faith.
Having established all the elements needed in these kinds of cases,the Panel decided the disputed domain name,victoriasecretshoes.com,to be trasferred to complainant.

Adult performer Lexi Love has won back her domain name from a Dallas-based cybersquatter. The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, which adjudicates disputes involving domain names, ruled May 19 that Texas [International] Property Associates had no right to use LexiLove.com and infringed upon Love’s trademarked name.

As the complainant, Love filed the complaint with the Geneva, Switzerland administrative panel March 31. Love first used the name Lexi Love on Aug. 16, 2004 and the disputed domain was registered Oct. 18, 2005 — well after Love had been an established adult performer with numerous movies to her credit.

Full article: http://www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=35513

The actress,Cameron Diaz filed for arbitration to get the domain name CameronDiaz.com. The domain name is currently parked at SmartName with links to “Cameron Diaz Actress”, “Entertainment”, and “Celebrity Posters”. The domain name’s whois record shows that it is owned by a Canadian company.
Lately,many celebrities have filed for abitration.Jay Leno who filed to get three domain names,Sigourney Weaver to get the domain name SigourneyWeaver.com and Jim Carey who wants JimCarrey.com

Some folks just never seem to learn; the land gambling giant MGM Mirage is currently pursuing its second cybersquatting action against a Panamanian resident named Susana Gonzales and a company with the apparent misnomer of Smart Answer SA (see Station Casinos, Inc. v. Smart Answer, S.A. et al., Case 09-cv-00692S (D. Nev.) and Court Case Number: 2:09-cv-00692-PMP-RJJ.

The case has achieved wide publicity in the Las Vegas Sun and other newspapers, and on blogs like the Las Vegas Trademark Attorney, and follows two other complaints of cybersquatting brought against Smart Answer by Las Vegas casinos.

The first was MGM Mirage Operations, Inc. v. Gonzales et al, Case No. 08-cv-01543 (D. Nev. Filed November 7, 2008), reports the LVTA blog. This lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed on March 24, 2009.

The second was Bellagio LLC et al v. Smart Answer S.A. et al, Case No. 08-cv-01569 (D. Nev. Filed November 13, 2008). This second action resulted in a default judgment of $2.2 million for the infringement of the trademarks owned by Bellagio, Circus Circus, Mandalay Bay, New York-New York and Treasure Island, but collection was not pursued, with the casino giant apparently content with confiscation of the contentious domains.

In the third case, filed April 17 2009, MGM Mirage has again lodged a complaint regarding Smart Answer and Gonzales, this time claiming abuse of the Station trademark, specifically in domains like Palace Station, Boulder Station and Sunset Station.

MGM subsidiary Stations Casinos says the contested sites all link to online gambling site Golden Casino, widely believed to be the vehicle used by Golden Palace for its US operations.

MGM hopes to get an early ruling from Magistrate Judge Robert J. Johnston, who will be hearing the case.

Source: http://www.recentpoker.com/news/Susana-Gonzales-2614.html

Web-savvy fans of Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle are cashing in on the Scottish singer’s new-found popularity by registering unofficial domain names.
Domain name squatters have snapped up dozens of website addresses that feature Susan Boyle’s name

Internet users in the UK, France, Germany and Spain have already snapped up a host of potentially valuable web addresses, including susanboyle.co.uk, susanboyle.org and susan-boyle.com, as well as local domains, such as susanboyle.fr,
susanboyle.de and susanboyle.es.

Full story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/susan-boyle/5209026/Susan-Boyle-fans-turn-to-cybersquatting.html

Political law attorney Matthew T. Sanderson believes the Internet needs a new .pol top-level domain because of cybersquatters who grab domain names related to politicians. He cites Meg Whitman’s difficulty acquiring domains related to her gubernatorial run in California:

Long before she began forming her campaign for governor of California, Meg Whitman got cybersquatted. Media speculation in early 2008 that the billionaire former chief executive of eBay would seek the state’s highest office prompted a Santa Monica man to nab rights to several Web sites that evoke Whitman’s name, including WhitmanForGovernor.com and MegWhitman2010.com.

Whitman spent much of last year trying to get those sites back. Her early attempts to negotiate failed, and she lost an Internet arbitration because her extensive business and political activities did not make her name “commercial” enough to warrant protection. She then initiated costly and potentially fruitless litigation that, had events run their course, might have concluded after California’s gubernatorial election. In the end, though, Whitman’s substantial checkbook solved her problem. She settled with the cybersquatter out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Full story: http://workbench.cadenhead.org/news/3509/attorney-wants-pol-top-level-domain

The Delhi High Court today restrained Mumbai based firm cyber-squatter from operating a website that used worlds largest oil and gas company Exxon Mobil’s name for its domain identification.

Exxon Mobil had filed a petition against Cyber Squatters to protect its intellectual property.

Talking to Business Standard, Anuradha Salhotra, Partner at the law firm Lall Lahiri & Salhotra, which represented the Exxon Mobil, said:  “There was no logical explanation as to why Cyber Squatters choose to use the mark Exxon Mobil in its domain name when it was never associated with the company.”

Salhotra further said the court has restrained Cyber Squatters from using Exxon Mobil’s name in its website and aslo asked the registrar of domain name not to renew this name for others.

Exxon Mobil Corporation maintains its corporate website as www.exxonmobil.com and offers credit card services for its products through Citibank via the website www.exxonmobilcard.com. Interestingly, Cyber Squatters, through its website www.exxonmobilecard.com, was not only providing access to services of the oil major company but also to other competitors of Exxon Mobil too.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/court-evicts-mumbai-cyber-squatter-using-exxon-mobil-name/58754/on

A Kiev court has awarded rights for the google.ua domain to the Google company, but the current rights owner, a prominent cybersquatter, is appealing against the ruling, Kommersant Ukraine daily writes Tuesday.

According to the Whois system, widely used to determine the owner of a domain name, the google.ua domain has been registered by a probably fictional Ukrainian company called Go Ogle. The google.ua page automatically redirects visitors to a Ukrainian dating website.

read the ful article here:  http://www.mosnews.com/money/2009/03/31/google/