Domain Name Shame

Domain Dispute for Sport

Complainant is one of six major American film studios. It is a subsidiary of News Corporation, the media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch, and was founded in 1934 as the result of a merger between Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures.  Complainant owns over 500 active worldwide registrations in over 80 countries for its FOX and FOX SPORTS marks, dating back to 1995.  Among others, Complainant offers online sports entertainment, including news, information, up-to-date scores, play-by-play coverage of games, and streaming videos, accessible by Internet users globally.  Its television broadcasts under the FOX SPORTS mark reach more than 99 million viewers in the United States and over 1 billion viewers worldwide.  The website www.foxsports.com consistently enjoys a ranking among the top 400 websites visited on the Internet as a whole and on average is visited by more than 13 million visitors each month.

The disputed domain name, "livefoxsports.info", was used in connection with Respondent's website which purportedly offered sports coverage similar to that of Complainant, namely coverage of the National Football League games.

In transferring the disputed domain name to Complainant, the Panel held that the addition of the term "live" is insufficient to distinguish it from relevant FOX SPORTS marks.  There was no indication of any right or legitimate interest that Respondent may have in the domain and, given the fact that Respondent offered online sports coverage identical to those offer by Complainant, it was evident that Respondent's only purpose in registering the domain was to divert traffic away from Complainant's website to its own for commercial gain and by confusing consumers into believing that Respondent's site was sponsored, endorsed or otherwise approved of or authorized by Complainant, falling squarely within the terms of paragraph 4(b)(iv) of the Policy.  Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation v. Domains by Proxy, Inc./Samina Rahman, WIPO Case No. D2009-1121

Model Domain Name Dispute

Complainant is a California-based model, actress, sports broadcaster, columnist and producer.  She began her career in show business in the 1980's as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Rams.  Throughout her career, Complainant has continuously used the name "Lisa Guerrero".  She owns and operates a website at www.lisaguerrero.net, which site attracts a high volume a web surfers, including fans and consumers interested in Complainant's career, services, and incidental produces such as autographs and other memorabilia.

On February 5, 2002, Respondent registered the domain name "lisaguerrero.com", using the domain in connection with a "click through" site offering a variety of services and wares.

Ordering the transfer of the disputed domain name to Complainant, the Panel held that Complainant had sufficiently developed a reputation in the area of entertainment services, namely acting, modeling and broadcasting, to support a finding of common law rights in her name and that the disputed domain name was confusingly similar to her common law trademark.  Moreover, there was simply no evidence that Respondent had any legitimate right or interest in the domain name and Respondent's use of the domain name for the commercial purpose of diverting Internet traffic intended for the Complainant constituted bad faith.  Lisa Guerrero v. Whois Protection, WIPO Case No. D2009-1055