The Wall Street Journal reports on page B1 today: Philip Morris received a court order seizing the domain name YESMOKE.COM from an online cigarette vendor. Yesmoke SA of Switzerland sells cigarettes at YESMOKE.CH. Philip Morris alleged that defendant infringed its trademarks and committed other unfair trade practices. YESMOKE.COM re-directed to YESMOKE.CH. As the name was registered
Adidas has sued Polo Ralph Lauren in U.S. District Court in Oregon for putting two stripes on the sleeve of a jacket. AP story here.
Copyfight comments on the DON’T INDUCE ACT, which is the name proponents of the INDUCE ACT should have selected in the first place. The Don’t Induce Act narrows the Induce Act by creating safe harbors from vicarious and/or contributory infringement for people such as software developers.
A whole blog on digital rights management here.
Call up the toll free directory, 1-800-555-1212, and ask for variants of your company’s name such as EXAMPLE CUSTOMER SERVICE, EXAMPLE PRODUCT SUPPORT, EXAMPLE PARTS, EXAMPLE REPAIR and EXAMPLE TECH SUPPORT. Now check to see if your company actually owns all the numbers you received.
Ernest’s The Importance Of with an exhaustive round-up of Grokster commentary.
Via Bag and Baggage, two ads worth noting.
Interesting page of domain name statistics, via ZookNic. .INFO and .BIZ peaked in September 2003 (approximately two years after their roll-outs). .COM has recovered and is at an all-time high in registrations.
MGM et. al. v. Grokster, 03-55894 (9th Cir. August 19, 2004). Partial dismissal on summary judgment of plaintiff’s copyright infringement claims against Grokster based on contributory and vicarious infringement arising from Grokster’s peer-to-peer software, affirmed by 9th Circuit.
UPDATE: Much commentary on Grokster here.