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NEWS Nominet sees 17% drop in cybersquatting disputes


British domain name registry Nominet handled nearly 700 cybersquatting disputes last year but the total was 17% lower than in 2012, it has revealed.


In a summary published on August 28, Nominet said in 2013 it dealt with 674 complaints under its Dispute Resolution Service (DRS), 437 of which progressed through the system.


Nominet said 83 of those disputes were resolved directly between the two parties, 87 by mediation, 177 by a summary decision, 87 by a full decision and three by an appeal panel.


In 369 cases, the disputed domain name was transferred to the complainant. Brands using the DRS last year included L’Oréal, Lego, Swarovski, O2, Virgin and Barclays.


The DRS seeks to settle disputes through mediation and, where that is not possible, an independent decision.


Nominet has historically managed the .co.uk,


.org.uk and .me.uk suffixes, and launched the shorter .uk address earlier this year, meaning the 2013 statistics do not include data covering the newer .uk.


The 17% fall in DRS complaints came as the number of domain names registered with Nominet rose by nearly 3% in the same period.


The average length of some DRS disputes is decreasing, Nominet said, showing that mediated cases took an average of 49 days to resolve in 2013, compared with 52 days in 2012. Expert decisions and appeals also took less time to complete in 2013, it said.


Nick Wenban-Smith, senior legal counsel at Nominet, said that last year the registry continued to see imaginative and challenging cases emerge through the DRS.


“Te system continues to be a fantastic light- touch alternative to the courts in addressing these disputes, allowing the domain name system


Ikea claims narrowed in website dispute


A US court hearing a trademark dispute relating to a website on which people can comment on Ikea products has narrowed both parties’ claims.


Judge Anthony Trenga, at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, found that Ikeafans.com cannot


allege anti-competitive


behaviour against Ikea but denied Ikea’s motions to dismiss the lawsuit entirely.


Te Swedish global furniture retailer and fan website Ikeafans.com have been in dispute since 2012 over use of the Ikea name.


Virginia-based Ikeafans, which was told by Ikea lawyers to stop using the name, brought a lawsuit against the multinational seeking a declaration of non-infringement in May 2014, following unsuccessful settlement talks.


Ikeafans said Ikea was seeking to use its trademarks as a basis for preventing it


from


“conducting its business of offering assistance to customers” and accused it of anti-competitive behaviour.


Ikea then filed a motion to dismiss in July, arguing


that the complaint did not state a valid claim as to why it could not enforce its trademark.


On August 22, Judge Trenga said that Ikeafans could not allege anti-competitive behaviour using the ‘unclean hands’ doctrine because Ikea had not stated a claim for relief.


Te unclean hands, or dirty hands, doctrine is a defence in which a plaintiff must be innocent of any wrongdoing. Te defendant has the burden of proof to show that the plaintiff is not acting in good faith.


Ikeafans.com was set up in 2005 to give


“information about Ikea products and inspiration to use them” and Ikea said initially that it would work with the site but would not compensate it.


Ikea and Ikeafans did not respond to requests for comment.


Te retailer is also involved in another IP dispute, this one with an Indian fabric maker.


Varanasi-based Ekaya has faced opposition from Ikea, which has filed a notice of opposition with the Registrar of Trademarks.


Last year, Ikea was granted approval to build a chain of around 25 stores in India and it claimed customers may become confused between the two. 


www.trademarksandbrandsonline.com Trademarks & Brands Online Volume 3, Issue 3 7


to remain fast-moving but fair, and contributing to the high level of trust in .uk websites.


“In a year when many new top-level domains (TLDs) are launching for the first time, brands need to recognise the value of a namespace which provides an established, robust and trusted framework for dealing with domain disputes quickly and fairly,” he said.


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Wenban-Smith added that the sharp drop in the number of complaints filed last year was surprising.


“It is too early to say whether this is a one- off, as there is a degree of natural variation in complaint filing by brands. However, we continue to believe that the strong reputation of the DRS, along with the safe and trusted nature of the .uk name space, acts as a disincentive to would-be cybersquatters, who know that if they make an ‘abusive registration’ it is relatively quick, cheap and easy for brands to take effective action against them.” 


TAINA SOHLMAN / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM


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