Cybersquatters Ordered to Give Up Sites
G E N E V A, Aug. 14, 2000 -- A U.N. panel ruled today that a Uruguay resident and another group of cybersquatters must give up 40 Internet sites containing the names of Yahoo! Inc. or its unit GeoCities.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), whichruns an arbitration system to evict cybersquatters or Net userswho register famous names in the hope of making quick profits,said the sites were registered in bad faith.
Do You Yahoo?
In the first case, which followed a complaint from the U.S.Internet media network, a WIPO panel ruled that Jorge Kirovsky,a Uruguay resident, must give up the sites www.yahooemail.net,www.yahoofree.net, www.yahoofree.com and www.yahoochat.net.
The panel said Kirovsky was acting in bad faith when heregistered the domain names, and that he had no legitimate interestin the sites which were confusingly similar to Yahoo! trademarks.
In the second case concerning Yahoo!, the WIPO panel orderedU.S.-based companies Data Art Corp, DataArt Enterprises Inc. andPowerclick Inc., as well as three entities based in Belize, to quita total of 36 Internet addresses they had registered containingthe name Yahoo! or GeoCities, Yahoo!’s fully owned subsidiary.
The sites ranged from www.ayhoo.com and chatyahoo.com towww.eocities.com, www.geosities.com and www.wwwmyyahoo.com.
WIPO said the sites had been registered in bad faith, wereconfusingly similar to Yahoo’s and GeoCities’ trademarks andthat their holders had no legitimate interest in keeping them.
Value in Domain Names
Domain names have become more valuable with the advance ofthe Internet, and a market has emerged for opportunists to grabnet addresses under the current system, which is largelyfirst-come, first-served.
The fast-track arbitration system of WIPO, the specializedU.N. copyright and intellectual property agency, allows firmsand individuals to avoid costly lawsuits in cases where mischiefis the motive or serious money is at stake.
WIPO has received more than 1,000 cases related to disputeddomain names since it set up the system last year. Decisionshave been made in more than half of the cases, some 80 percentof them in favour of the complainants.
Companies that have won back their names from allegedcybersquatters through WIPO so far include Christian Dior,Deutsche Bank, Microsoft and Nike.
WIPO has also ruled in favour of celebrities, includingHollywood film star Julia Roberts and British rock band JethroTull, to evict cybersquatters.
Roberts and Jethro Tull succeeded where British pop starSting failed as his attempt to win back sting.com from anAmerican who had registered it first was denied last month byWIPO because it said “sting” was a common English word.