Battlebots Battles It Out: TV Show Versus IRC

Ender, Duke_of_URL writes: "Battlebots the TV show, has joined the ranks of Corporate bad-guys buy attempting to force out Battlebots.org, an IRC site that had registered their domain before Battlebots even filed for a trademark. As most of you know, in any dispute over domains it's the money that wins."

Comments

/. their PR department?

[cosyne]

From battlebots.com:

Comments, Questions, Concerns?
Let us know what's on your mind. Contact us at the following addresses:

PRESS DESK
press@battlebots.com

GENERAL FEEDBACK AND QUESTIONS
info@battlebots.com

Re:nope nope

[ananke]

This can be an interesting issue. From the internic records, the domain battlebots.org was registered on 2000-08-28. I agree, that battlebots [the show], made a mistake by not registering it at the same time they were applying for the trademark. This could be very interesting in court.

domain: battlebots.org
status: production
origin-c: COCO-695905
registrar: CORE-80
created: 2000-08-28 06:52:41 UTC CORE-80
expires: 2002-08-28 01:59:40 UTC

Registration.

[h0rus]

Hmm.

battlebots.com:

Registrant:
BattleBots Inc. (BATTLEBOTS-DOM)
701 DeLong Ave
Unit K
Novato, CA 94945
US

Record created on 03-Mar-1999

battlebots.net:

Registrant:
KiKi Internet
10339 S. Tantau Ave.
Cupertino, Ca 95014
US

Record Created on 23-Aug-2000

battlebots.org:

Registrant Hot Networking (template COCO-695905)
email.the.admin.contact@battlebots.org
8219 La Riviera Dr.
Sacramento, CA 95826 USA

Record created: 2000-08-28 06:52:41 UTC by CORE-80

What this is...

[Picass0]

This may be an example of some junior attorney attempting to justify his or her retainer to Comedy Central. I'm sure CC has a small army of lawyers for defending IP concerns. But as Adobe learned recently, your overzealous laywers sometime can get you in public relation deep shit. Comedy Central may not even be aware of this exchange.

Something's wrong..

[kalgen]

The cease and desist was sent on July 25th.

Battlebot.org's letter is dated August 17th.

The supposed "reply" was sent on August 9th,
but obviously it wasn't a reply at all.

Seems like battlebots.org is cybersquatting to me..

$6000

[Halo-]

Let me see if I got this right... The guy is willing to part with his domain for less than $6000 and BattleBot.com is fighting him? How much does it cost to hire an evil corporate lawyer? Certainly more than that.

Aren't we being...

[Arjuna Theban]

...a bit too pessimistic? I mean yea we all saw what happened with the www.companynamesucks.com lawsuits and all, but with something blatantly obvious like this (ie: the IRC server existing before the trademark) it's hard even for big $$$ lawyers to make the judge say what they want.

---

Something is indeed strange here

[Anonymous Coward]

On battlebots.org he claims that he use the domain name for his ISP, and in the letters it is claimed he will loose money if he loose the domain name!

But then why isn't the page containing any business information?

How can he loose money by having this page display the same contents as battlebots.com instead of these letters?

Sometimes it's the small guy trying to take advantage of the big company - I think I smell it here. He tries to make a couple of thousands hoping Battlebots will choose the easy and cheap way out.

And why is he useing an .org domain for his personal business - wouldn't you try to find an name where the .com domain is available?

I'm not 100% sure he is a syber-squatter - but from the information presented, it's the most likely as far as I can see.

For anyone who uses IRC... this is obvious.

[Electrawn]

I checked out the company theshell.com. It seems they offer vhosts for IRC.

Basically this "business" is an eggdrop site/ shell whore site for script kiddies. Also it's been noted in previous posts that the domain was registered AFTER battlebots.com was.
This is no case of a corporation going after a little guy, this is a case of a script kiddie/wannabe admin/etc whining because his leet domain is trademarked.
IRC has broken down into lame vhosts, theshell.com seems no exception.

Before you go sending off those letters to battlebots.com...just look at this:(I'm assuming with 99% certainty he owns the entire ip block)

[N] Resolved 63.236.138.57 to www.battlebots.org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.58 to clubslut.org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.59 to oddlyshaped.nutsack.org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.60 to fuckthenet.org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.61 to keg.drinker.net
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.62 to beer.drinker.net
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.63 to met.your.momma.at.the.clubslut.org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.64 to heavy.alcohol.drinker.net
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.65 to killall-9.battlebots.org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.66 to screwdriver.drinker.net
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.67 to irc.erisfreenetwork.net
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.68 to big.nutsack.org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.69 to two-a-day.com
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.70 to you.aint.leet.enough.to.crack.512bit.com
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.71 to my.passwd.is.512bit.com
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.72 to i.once.hacked.512bit.com
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.73 to hacked.512bit.com
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.74 to elite.512bit.com
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.75 to erisfreenetwork.net
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.76 to ircd.erisfreenetwork.net
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.77 to erdmanphoto.com
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.78 to some-day.i.will.fuckthenet.org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.79 to help.me.fuckthenet.org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.80 to fuckyourmom.fuckyoursister.fuckyourdog.fuckthenet. org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.56 to thenarrator.com
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.55 to vhosts.theshell.com
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.54 to pennstsucks.com
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.53 to emeraldbp.com
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.52 to licked.and.fondled.nutsack.org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.51 to has.a.d0pe.nutsack.org
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.50 to instinct.love.le.gs
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.49 to DONT.touch.my.le.gs
[N] Resolved 63.236.138.48 to lezbos.like.to.lick.Britney.Spears.le.gs

Save your battles for someone who really needs help.