Adult business-related attorneys and other industry people are warning hard against cybersquatting. Now an international cybersquat case - the first - has been settled in favor of the World Wrestling Federation.
An arbitrator for the World Intellectual Property Organization has ruled a California resident who registered the domain name Worldwrestlingfederation.com and offered to sell it to the WWF at a large profit had acted in bad faith, Reuters says.
Enterpreneurial Netizens have scurried to register domain names first featuring names of big companies, hoping to be paid large amounts to give up the names, Reuters says, but WIPO arbitrator Scott Donahey says the WWF cybersquatter's domain name was "identical or confusingly similar" to the WWF trademark - and that he had no right to the name.
The case was filed Dec. 2, Reuters says, one day after new rules to block cybersquatting and trademark abuse online took effect. Under a new fast-track arbitration procedure, the news wire continues, the WIPO, a United Nations agency which aims to protect trademarks, patents and copyrights, names a neutral arbitrator to decide the case within 45 days, avoiding costly domestic lawsuits.
The WIPO says it's been asked to act in five other similar disputes, Reuters says.
