from the lawsuit-that-should-'workbetter' dept.
Cybersquatting is registering, selling or using a domain name with the intent of profiting from the goodwill of someone else's trademark. It generally refers to the practice of buying up domain names that use the names of existing businesses with the intent to sell the names for a profit to those businesses. Now Andrew Allmann writes at Domain Name Wire that New York company Office Space Solutions, Inc. has filed a cybersquatting lawsuit against Jason Kneen over the domain name WorkBetter.com that Kneen registered in 1999 although Office Space Solutions didn't use the term "Work Better" in commerce until 2015.
"Workbetter.com is virtually identical to, and/or confusingly similar to the WORK BETTER Service Mark, which was distinctive at the time that the Defendant renewed and/or updated the registration of workbetter.com," says the lawsuit. But according to an Office Space Solutions' filing with the USPTO, it didn't use the term "Work Better" in commerce until 2015. Office Space Solutions is making the argument that the domain name was renewed in bad faith. According to Kneen, Office Space previously tried to purchase the domain name from him and after it failed to acquire the domain name, is now trying to take it via a lawsuit.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday July 01 2015, @04:33AM
Aren't shady companies still buying up .com domains whenever they expire? This is to ransom them back to the lapsed owners or cause a bidding war.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday July 01 2015, @05:34AM
"Did you register his domains?"
"Com, net and org!"
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Willie-Brown-Finds-Web-Name-Taken-Contractor-2915053.php [sfgate.com]
All Andy really wanted was a job so he registered the domains of all the SFO mayoral campaigns then waited around for an offer.
I roffle coptered when I found one of my best friends above the fold in the Chron. I gave him free hosting so for a while williebrown.com had a discussion of willie brown's machine politics. Later it endorsed Tom Ammiano.
A client once refused to pay Andy for his work so he redirected the domain to a particularly skanky website of ill repute. Andy's parents were quite surprised when a deputy turned up at their place in new england to serve the client's complaint.
Even today most people dont know why its important to own their own domains.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Wednesday July 01 2015, @09:37AM
The workbetter.com domain is currently not used - it just redirects to Kneen's blog. I don't know if this is recent or if this has been the case since 1999.
Maybe Office Space Solutions inc is a bunch of $REDACTED_FOR_PG_RATINGS, but the current situation does seem to be that Kneen has a domain name that he's not occupying but is keeping control of because $ELIPHINO. Someone else want that domain for $REASON. As I understand things, cybersquatting rules were kind of intended for situations like this, and judges will weigh up $REASON against $ELIPHINO and figure out which is more important.
tl;dr: system working as intended?
(Score: 2) by tempest on Wednesday July 01 2015, @01:22PM
Domains can be used for much more than hosting something at the root level. I had a discussion with someone about my domain claiming I "wasn't doing anything with it" because ${root}.net/index.html didn't have anything on it. I have plenty of machines utilizing dns, and a fairly big email setup - I'd say that's easily as legit as putting a blog or some other shit on a domain. And I have well over 500 html pages on that domain created in the last ~20 years, just not at ${root}.net/ I'm pretty sure a prerequisite of those laws are sitting on a brand name that already exists, and doesn't have much to do with "usage".
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Thursday July 02 2015, @11:07AM
Good point, $ELIPHINO could very well be legit. In which case the judge (hopefully) sides with Kneen.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JeanCroix on Wednesday July 01 2015, @02:09PM
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Thursday July 02 2015, @11:13AM
If that's not what we want, we should put a different system in place.
Tempest made a good point that you don't need to use a domain name for hosting a web site to use it anyway (FTP, SMTP, usenet, server, etc.). Lack of HTML does not mean lack of need to connect. It also need not mean a lack of need for a specific domain name. We have a system to evaluate that question. If we don't like the system's results in general, we should fix the system.
In your example: you're of course able to try and sue for that sort of thing. I'm guessing any judge will toss your case out without hearing - actually I bet that if the filing clerk had the appropriate responsibilities for this, the clerk would toss it out. So that system seems to work.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Thursday July 02 2015, @11:48AM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Kharnynb on Wednesday July 01 2015, @10:14AM
It's 2 dictionary words, put together in a rather common way...
The guy owns the domain and they want it, but he doesn't want to sell (for whatever they offered anyway)
So now they want to use the courts to get their way?
sounds like "office space solutions" are a bunch of babies that threw their toys out of the pram when they didn't get their way...
Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday July 03 2015, @12:54AM
I think this is more like gold. You have absolutely no use for the stuff. But you have faith someone else wants it and will pay you for it. You do not have to sell it, and are free to bid the price up as much as the market will pay.
Its called "capitalism".
And it happens everywhere.. for lots of examples of the same thing, look at the "collectibles" markets... now how much is that 1928D ( pulled out of ass ) penny actually worth?
If the guy wants to play games, and you don't want to put up with it... well he beat you to the name... so go find another. And he's left with with paying for the registration fees.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]