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Green Bay Packers and Microsoft Win Domain Name Fight After Family Sought Cash, Tickets and Tablets (geekwire.com)
theodp writes: Last fall, Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers announced a $10 million partnership to build TitletownTech, "an innovation center focused on developing and advancing scalable, technology-enabled ventures," which aims to bring an economic boost to the area near Lambeau Field (Microsoft President Brad Smith hails from the region). Unfortunately for them, they failed to secure their venture's namesake domain name ahead of time. GeekWire reports on the fate of a Wisconsin family that was sitting on the coveted titletowntech.com domain name and offered to give it up in exchange for $750,000 cash, 8 lifetime Packers season tickets, 2 parking passes, and 8 Microsoft Surface Pro tablets (with lifetime MS-Office licenses). The family said the admittedly-ridiculous demand wasn't meant to be taken seriously but was intended to send a message after they received a suspicious $5,000 buyout offer from an anonymous "service" that the Packers engaged to try to recover the fumbled domain. Not amused, Green Bay Packers, Inc. flexed its legal muscle, filing a domain dispute complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which ordered the disputed domain name to be transferred to the team shortly after the USPTO issued a Notice of Allowance to the NFL team for a trademark on TitletownTech, leaving the Wisconsin family with zilch. And so the old titletowntech.com ("TitleTown Tech Solutions") was just a bad memory by the time Microsoft returned to Green Bay last week to give an update on the joint venture, including the news that Microsoft will play a key role in the leadership team at TitletownTech, which will also house its TEALS program employees. [...] And as for the domain name, the NFL franchise with more titles than any other team ultimately did what it has done for years -- win.
Everyone involved is an asshole.
Domain sitters -- assholes.
Absurd compensation request -- assholes.
GBPackers going for a clearly non-football business -- assholes
Microsoft -- say no more.
Federal Trademark Law which allows someone to trademark a phrase already in use by others - assholes.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
"Unfortunately for them, they failed to secure their venture's namesake domain name ahead of time."
Seriously, in 2018, how does this happen? What sort of a dumbshit in 2018 for any business (to say nothing of a tech-specific venture between two NATIONAL corporations) doesn't check if the domain name is available?
Whoever said "hey let's use this name" and didn't check should be fired yesterday.
-Styopa
I actually RTFA (I know, I know), and it makes clear that the family agreed to the initial $5k purchase price, only to renege upon finding out that the purchasers have deep pockets. They're not the little guys doing business in good faith; they're trying to take advantage of happening to register a domain two weeks before MSFT/GBPC. Thatâ(TM)s not worth $750k.
They deserve nothing. Probably got the name from overhearing something at a coffee/cheese shop, too.
Did they get their domain registration fees back at least?
They got an offer far in excess of their domain registration fees.
They got greedy and threw the dice.
If a cybersquatter can just take a free roll at the big bucks and still get a guaranteed minimum if they lose, economically rational cybersquatters will do exactly that and the overall cybersquatting "tax" will go up.
Your feelings about that outcome will doubtless vary depending on your feelings about cybersquatting in general.
They got an offer far in excess of their domain registration fees.
They got greedy and threw the dice.
Greedy indeed! They asked for 8 lifetime Packers season tickets! They may as well have asked for Bill Gate's liver.
They weren't squatters, you moron. They ran a small business called TitleTown Tech Solutions and that was their actual website. This was theft, plain and simple.
They got an offer far in excess of their domain registration fees.
Apparently you don't believe in capitalism or the free market, do you? In a free market, sellers charge what the market will bear. The price asked bears no relationship to what the product cost to make - just ask Apple.
So if you had bought Apple stock when it was first issued, you would now be content to accept the same price for it, would you?
Thought not.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
The WIPO panel
Except, that if you actually read it, it says:
Douglas M. Isenberg
Sole Panelist
And interestingly, this same "judge" also "prosecutes" at the same "court": http://world-intellectual-prop...
So yeah, sure this is independent. If I would that family, I'd sue in a regular court. WIPO is a farce.
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
If the government wants to use eminent domain, they can do that for their own purposes, but I don't think they can do it for corporate purposes.
True, according to the Constitution. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court believes otherwise.