Heel.com

[Mizzoula]

I was reading through several suits from earlier in the year and came on the decision of Heel.com (March/April '02). After reading the decision it leaves one to wonder about any company making claims to a generic domain by using a "-" in their product line or trademark. So, essentially, that means all generic domain owners are in danger of decisions like this. What strikes me odd is that both parties (complainant and respondent) had had a back-and-forth in negotiations to sell the domain to the complainant (Biologische Heilmittel Heel GmbH), but after an asking price was discharged, so was the subsequent complaint. So, would the analogy work if your last name was Ford and you went to make a deal with an owner of a Ford vehicle, would you then have outright stakes to the vehicle--and thus file a suit to get it transferred--if you were told a price you didn't agree with? Someone tell me if this analogy is not correct. There's several issues with this decision I do not agree with, and it should leave anxiety with any generic domain owner.

http://arb-forum.com/domains/decisions/105902.htm

 

[timechange.com]

What's interesting is that the tm is pronounced "he-el" in German. Unlike the body part "heel".

 

[LawyerSturgeon]

After the UDRP decision, the registrant of heel.com came to me to litigate in Virginia. We obtained a nice price for him as settlement of the lawsuit.

Since the registry database of all .com, .net and .org domain names is located in Virginia we can litigate in Virginia to obtain court orders that can be enforced on the registry for any .com, .net and .org domain names. (If you are not familiar with the terminology, the registry is the main database that maintains the data for all of the individual registrars)

Starting a lawsuit in Virginia works really well. It brings about some nice settlement prices.

Steve Sturgeon, Esquire
domain-name-dispute-lawyers.com

 

[pljones]

Steve,

Thanks for the update on the Heel.com case. It would be helpful to have the court docket number for this case so it can be added to the UDRP-Court Challenge Database at http://www.udrplaw.net/UDRPappeals.htm

 

[pljones]

The citation is now added to the database. Thanks for mentioning this on DNForum. Steve is correct, an action can be filed in the Eastern District to challenge a UDRP decision for .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us, .tv domains, and it has been done frequently, with success.