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The Neverending Sex.com Story
fwc writes "This has to be the story which will never end. Back in 1996, Steven Cohen "stole" sex.com from its original owner (Gary Kremen) by forging a letter to Network Solutions asking for the domain to be transferred to him. Subsequently Kremen sued to get the domain name returned. Through what seemed to be a neverending parade of lawsuits and judgements (Documented on slashdot here, here, here and here, and also in several other places), Kremen finally got his domain back and Cohen was ordered to pay $65 million in damages. In the latest twist, Cohen is asking the US Supreme Court to overturn the verdict of the lower courts by claiming that he owned the sex.com trademark prior to Kremen registering the domain. This should prove interesting since it looks like the filing at the USPTO occured two years after the domain was originally registered."
From day one Network Solutions has been horrible. Their customer service sucks. Because of their f-ck ups in the early days it is now nearly impossible to get information changed on an older domain. Compared to other companies, their prices are shit. And because of all this they ended up causing lawsuits. I'm just happy that now(or for the past few years) there is more than one choice for registering a domain name.
according to theregister.co.uk (sorry tired and stressed and cant be arsed to make that a link)
the site generates somewhere in the region of 500,000 dollars a month in advertising space alone
So worth quite a bit by the looks of it
S
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
...Network Solutions is wonderful now. I'll agree with you on the pricing issue, they charge what's basically a ridiculous amount given the number of other registrars out there who are happy to register for $10/year and provide good service. I would never recommend them to anyone now.
;))
However, compared to several years ago, Network Solutions' security policies are very good at this point. Perhaps too good - I've heard horror stories about people having to go get documents notarized and snailmail them in just to make changes on WHOIS information. If anything, their security policies are overly strict and pre-assuming of wrongdoing at this point.
Step back several years, when NSI was the only registrar around, and all domain updates were handled via email to hostmaster@internic.net. Those were the days. I hijacked hundreds of domains back then, with nothing more than an anonymously sent email. All you had to do was fill out the domain modification template and forge an email from the person currently listed as the administrative contact - the changes requested via email would go through by default unless the true owner caught it and wrote in. Even if the legit domain owner figured out what was going on, the changes would often take place before they were able to contact NSI (and prove that they didn't send the update email).
Hijacking a domain was such a piece of cake back then. I'd just make a fake account with a service like mydomain.com, transfer the target domain's name servers to mydomain.com via an untraceable anonymous email, and set up the mydomain.com account to redirect the domain in question to the site of my choosing.
It was too fucking easy. These days you need a customer ID and password, what a pain in the ass
At least they finally got the security thing worked out.
sex.com is a big money maker. The $65 million were awarded based on expected revenue from operating the site from it was stolen. Alexa lists it as the 1669th largest site in the world based on traffic (Slashdot is at 1029th at the moment), and that doesn't take into accounts the partnerships they have for providing pay per click search engine listings to many of the larger search engines for adult searches.
Actually, all he had to do was show that he had used the mark in commerce or had a bona fide intent to use the mark in commerce to file the app. In the latter case, he could have filed up to three year's worth of extensions for time to show use of the mark in commerce.
The USPTO is not the "trademark police". It is the trademark holder's responsibility to police the mark. So when he filed his app, other potentially valid owners should file notices of opposition (to the registration of the mark). While filing for a "domain name" may seem like the more important thing to do... afterall, you have the domain, you own it, right?... a trademark owner can trump your domain name registration with prior use of the mark.
Now, they may have a battle in trying to get the domain name transferred (obviosuly, this case is a battle). The USPTO doesn't "compare notes" with NetSol. In fact, I doubt they all that much give a hoot about NetSol.
The key point is that, even though the guy who forged the letter may have had "bad faith" in acquiring the domain name, if he actually used the trademark first AND filed for the USPTO application first, he is the "senior user" and would theoretically win the "trademark battle".
Domain names are pretty irrelevant to trademark rights. The fact that you reserve one doesn't mean jack to the USPTO nor the courts in determining who owns a trademark (especially if all you do is reserve it and park it!). If anything, you are better off spending that money filing with the USPTO, because the key thing an USPTO application gets you is "constructive notice" (i.e., anybody who uses your mark after you should have known you owned it) and that is more powerful than registering a domain name (which, by itself, is not use in commerce anyway).
As all of you are aware, Michael Sims is the Jerry Falwell of the 21st Century. He stole away my award winning project, the Censorware project, in what can only be called the crime of the century. (Do revisit, I've added many updates.)
When Michael Sims took away my project, he left me angry and bitter. From his first message "The Censorware Project is now closed" to his current propagation of lies and slander, Michael Sims has desecrated the freedom that I and every American stand for.
Sex.com is a pitiful excuse for a "hijacking." I implore you, Slashdot, do a story about Michael Sims taking away a web site that is far more enticing than any "Sex" site.
I'm not Seth Finkelstein. I still speak the truth.
And there's Dildo Newfoundland. I guess Climax Michigan would be SOL too.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
What's really interesting about that trademark application is that it is under opposition. (See here.)
You'll note that not only did Cohen's trademark lawyers "fire" him, but that this application is about to die.
And as a note to an above post, the USPTO actually does kind of act like the "trademark police" in the opposition process. Think of it like an administrative court.
yet even if he does prove that does it make any difference. Surely (IANAL), that would only show that he had a reason to want that domain, not that it was his by any right. Unless, of course, he can show that the name was being used to pretend to be his business...
i.e. There is a sports company called "Wilsons" and my name is Wilson. If I register wilsons.com for my family's use (I know that it is not available) I would not be contravening the sports company's trademark unless I try to imply that I am them.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.