Naughty America Wins Back Domain Names from Squatter

SAN DIEGO, Calif.—Naughty America scored a complete victory over a cybersquatter and typosquatter after the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ruled that nine domain names were registered in bad faith.

WIPO Sole Panelist Petter Rindforth ruled Aug. 16 that the names regstered by well-known typosquatter Above.com Domain Privacy were confusingly similar and infringed upon Naughty America’s trademark.

According to WIPO filings, Above.com Domain Privacy has 45 prior cases in which it registered confusingly similar names.

Each spelling of the disputed domain names differed from the Naughty America mark by only adding or subtracting one letter.

The names in question were natghtyamerica.com, naughtyameriaca.com, naughtyamerixa.com, naughtyameroca.com, naughtyarmerica.com, nauhhtyamerica.com, nauthtyamerica.com, nnaughtyamerica.com and nuughtyamerica.com. Above.com was using the domains for commercial gain as pay-per-click landing pages.

The WIPO filing states that the earliest registered domain name in dispute was registered over four years after Naughty America began using the name on the internet and nearly three years after the mark was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

“Typosquatting occurs when a respondent purposefully includes typographical errors in the mark portion of a disputed domain name to divert Internet users who make those typographical errors,” Rindforth wrote. “In this case, all the disputed domain names take advantage of Internet users who mistype…NAUGHTY AMERICA…The Panel concludes that the Respondent’s engagement in typosquatting is further evidence that the Respondent does not have rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain names.”

Naughty America is pleased with the victory.

“We’ve devoted years of time and resources toward establishing our brand,” Naughty America CEO and President Eddie Arenas said. “We have to protect it.

“We will continue our campaign to protect our brand and target those who steal Naughty America’s intellectual property.”  

The ruling in La Touraine, Inc. v. Above.com Domain Privacy / Transure Enterprise Ltd, Host Master, WIPO Case No. D2010-1118 can be found on the WIPO site here.