Domain names

Some talks (not me)

Coming up to the end of the year, there are events on reforming patent litigation practice and domain name disputes in review.

Patent litigation practice

Calling it “A very IPRIA Christmas”, IP Australia and IPRIA are hosting on 7 December at 5:30 pm an end of year celebration exploring “a wish list of practice reforms for making patent litigation in Australia (including appeals from the Office) more expeditious and cost effective.”

The event will be chaired by Justice Rofe and features Clare Cunliffe and David Shavin KC from the Bar and Lisa Taliadoros from the solicitors’ side of the profession.

Registration is free and attendance can be in person or online – although to assist catering they do ask that you register by the end of Monday 5 December if you are planning to attend at the Law School in Carlton in person.

Domain names

If domain name disputes are more your thing, the Hon. Neil Brown KC is also presenting an “Annual round-up on Domain Name Arbitration”. Topics Neil intends to cover include:

  • how the domain name process works
  • latest trends emerging from the decisions of arbitrators
  • what evidence do you need and how to collect the best evidence
  • the procedures to lodge a claim and how to defend one
  • traps for new players.

While Neil and I haven’t always seen eye to eye in particular cases, Neil has lots of experience both in the UDRP and a number of other regional and country-specific dispute resolution processes.

Neil is giving his talk online via Zoom at 10:00 am (Melbourne time; i.e. UTC +11) also on 7 December 2022.

According to his brochure, there is no need to register; just log-in. I am afraid I cannot reproduce the link so you are probably best just to email him directly.

Some talks (not me) Read More »

auDA Policy implementation review

auDA, the body regulating the .au domain, has embarked on a Policy review, through a Review Panel chaired by John Swinson.

The first issue being considered is how to implement the decision to allow “second level” domain name registrations: e.g. domain.au in addition to domain.com.au and domain.net.au etc.

One issue that gives rise to is how to resolve conflicting reapplication for registration if different people have “domain” registered already in e.g. .com.au and .net.au. The Issues Paper explains:

53. Given the extensive stakeholder consultation already undertaken on whether existing registrants should be given priority registration rights, the Panel has decided not to revisit this issue but to focus on developing a priority registration policy. The development of a priority registration policy requires consideration of the following issues:
• cut-off date for determining registrant eligibility for priority registration;
• process for resolving competing claims to the same second level domain name; and
• the priority registration period in which registrants will have exclusive rights to register the second level domain name.

auDA is seeking your views by 10 November 2017.

Issues Paper and further details here .

A second, later phase of the review will look at the policies relating to registration in the established second level domains (such as .com.au).

auDA Policy implementation review Read More »

WIPO Overview 3.0

WIPO Overview 3.0 Read More »

Selected links from the last week (or so)

Here is a selection of links to IP-related matters I found interesting this week:

Patents

Trade marks

Copyright

Designs

Not categorised

I hope you find something interesting. If you did or have a question, leave a comment or send me an email

Selected links from the last week (or so) Read More »

Dot Feedback

I was the panelist in an interesting UDRP dispute, debeers.feedback, which raises a couple of points worth being aware of.

If you’re not aware of it, .feedback is one of those new Top Level Domains that ICANN approved earlier this year. It is supposed to be a forum where people wishing to provide feedback (Duh!) can make their point. At the time of its approval, it was apparently rather controversial.

In this particular case, a number of what appeared to be otherwise genuine “feedback” posts only appeared on the website after Debeers sent a letter of demand, even though they were dated much earlier. The registrant did not seek to explain that.

The first point I wanted to draw your attention to is that, unbeknownst to the Complainant or me, the posts in question seem to have been cut and pasted from Yelp. If you have to deal with one of these domain names, a Google search will be in order.

Marty Schwimmer, the original trademark blog, suggests another argument: that “feedback” is semantically different to “.sucks” (and similar criticism outlets) and, Marty argues, implies an official outlet or connection.

Dot Feedback Read More »

Selected links,from last week

Here is a selection of links to IP-related matters I found interesting this week:

Patents

Trade marks

Copyright

Remedies

Not categorised

I hope you find some interesting. If you did or have a question, leave a comment or send me an email

Selected links,from last week Read More »

auDRP Overview

You probably know that the auDRP is the dispute resolution policy for the .au domain name space. You may not know that there have been about 330 decisions in its roughly 12 years of operation.

Prof Andrew Christie, with a helping hand from James Gloster, Jeffry Kadarusman and Daniel Lau, has prepared an “Overview” outlining how the decisions have treated the various issues arising under the auDRP. And he is launching the auDRP Overview at a Workshop on Wednesday 27 August at 9:15 am to 10:45. Venue the Crown Promenade.

Details here.

Prof Christie is the Professor of Intellectual Property at the University of Melbourne a very experienced domain name panelist, having amongst other things written the seminal decision Telstra v Nuclear Marshmallows D2000-0003If you find yourself with a dispute over a domain name registered in the .au domain name space, I anticipate you will find your first stop being this overview. Given the influence of UDRP decisions on auDRP decisions, although there are some important differences, you will also probably find it helpful in the context of the UDRP too. Make sure you read it.

The WIPO Overview to the UDRP version 2.0 here.

auDRP Overview Read More »

On the problems of descriptive names

The Full Federal Court has dismissed Kosciuszko Thredbo’s appeal from the dismissal of its claims against ThredboNet.

Kosciuszko Thredbo (KT) runs the Thredbo ski resort. Amongst other things, one of its subsidiaries promotes the range of activities available at Thredbo from a website having the domain name: thredbo.com.au. ThredboNet leases some of the accommodation at Thredbo from KT and hires it out to prospective skiers, partygoers and the like. Indeed, the terms of its lease from KT obliged it to hire out, or at least offer for hire, the leased premises. ThredboNet had the, er, gall to promote its accommodation, amongst other things, from websites having “thredbo” in their domain names including “thredbo.com”.

KT contended that this conduct was passing off its reputation in “Thredbo” and misleading or deceptive conduct contrary to s 18 of the Australian Consumer Law.

The Full Court agreed with KT that the trial Judge had erred in requiring KT to demonstrate it had acquired sufficient secondary meaning in Thredbo, the name of the place, that KT had the exclusive right to use the name. This did not help KT in the end:

31. In the end, the word “Thredbo” is a geographical name of a location in New South Wales. The appellants’ resort and businesses are located there and they hold (and their predecessors in title held) the head lease over the land on which the village and resort complex are located. But others also operate businesses, as sublessees, in the physical location known as Thredbo. The real issue was not whether the appellants had established a monopoly over the right to use the word “Thredbo” but whether they had established that the respondents’ conduct in using that word was likely to lead ordinary or reasonable consumers seeking accommodation or services in Thredbo into believing that the respondents’ business or the accommodation or other services that the respondents were offering was or were that or those of the appellants: Campomar 202 CLR at 87 [105]; Office Cleaning 63 RPC at 42. The more significant issue, then, is whether the primary judge erred in his conclusions on the question whether the respondents’ conduct was misleading or deceptive (or likely to be so).

The trial judge didn’t.

There were a number of strands to the Full Court’s reasoning. The Full Court recognised that some degree of confusion must be accepted where 2 traders use descriptive words otherwise one would be given an unfair monopoly.

In this case, the evidence from Google search results showed that there were a number of businesses that advertised with “Thredbo” in their name and/or domain names. ThredboNet’s website looked sufficiently different to KT’s websites and was limited only to the limited range of accommodation it provided. After the proceeding commenced, ThredboNet had included a disclaimer on its website. There was an initial form and a second, more explicit form. Either was sufficient:

We are not satisfied that a consumer who went to any of the respondents’ websites would reasonably have associated the operator of the website with the appellants. The respondents’ domain name www.thredbo.com was very similar to that of KT, namely www.thredbo.com.au. A consumer might easily be led to the former website thinking it was that of the appellants when doing an internet search. But in today’s society the ordinary or reasonable consumer seeking accommodation, or other goods or services, on the internet will frequently click on a result in a web search thinking it is a link to a particular site, only to find when his or her browser is directed to the selected site that it is not the site of the supplier or business that the consumer wanted. The ordinary, reasonable consumer who came upon the home page of www.thredbo.com would have seen, depending on when he or she accessed it, the first or second disclaimer in the middle of the page. Each disclaimer appeared under a recognisable, distinctive heading “About Thredbo.com”. It did not have the appearance, as asserted by the appellants, of being “buried in the text”.

This is not an endorsement of the initial interest confusion theory.

In the course of reaching their conclusion, the Full Court at [43] endorsed the proposition that:

…. Ordinarily, most people searching for a term or information will look at the first page of search results and then select the most apparently appropriate link or links from that page before they would move to a second or subsequent page of search results. Indeed, they would be unlikely to see any need to go to a second or subsequent page of search results unless they had not found some satisfactory site or sites on the first page.

There was a third issue: clause 4.3 of ThredboNet’s lease from KT appeared to forbid the use of “Thredbo”:

4.3 NO USE OF ‘THREDBO’

The Sublessee must not use or permit the use of the word ‘Thredbo’ in connection with any business carried on by the Sublessee, without the prior written consent of [KT].”

(Emphasis added by Full Court)

Because ThredboNet was required by the lease to hire out the accommodation for at least 26 weeks of the year, cl 4.3 could not mean ThredboNet could not use “Thredbo” in connection with that business. At a minimum, it must have been contemplated by both parties that ThredboNet would be able to tell its customers and potential customers the address of the properties. Further, the Full Court pointed out that the restraint was not a restraint in respect of the land on which the leased properties had been built. The restraint operated quite independently and separately from the land. Finally, KT did not provide evidence, or sufficient evidence, that a restraint of this kind was commonly accepted in such contracts as a normal incident of the arrangement. Accordingly, cl. 4.3 was invalid at common law as an unreasonable restraint of trade and operated so far outside any permissible scope that it was not capable of being read down under s 4 of the NSW Restraints of Trade Act.

Question: would it have made any difference if KT had a registered trade mark?

Kosciuszko Thredbo Pty Limited v ThredboNet Marketing Pty Limited [2014] FCAFC 87 (Siopis, Rares and Katzmann JJ)

 

Lid dip: Sue Gatford

On the problems of descriptive names Read More »

auDA reviews whoIS policy

auDA, the body which administers the domain name system in the .au (i.e. Australia) space (OK, ccTLD) has embarked on a review (pdf) of its WhoIS policy.

There are 2 main issues:

  1. Should there be any changes to auDA’s WHOIS Policy covering the collection, disclosure and use of WHOIS data for .au domain names?
  2. Should access to .au domain name data (other than via WHOIS) be opened up?

Apparently, there was a workshop in October 2013 where these issues were canvassed (and you can view a video online – it does go for 1 hour and 25 minutes).

I think if you are a trade mark owner, or act for trade mark owners, you would be well-advised to be making submissions to at least retain the basic information you need to identify the registrant if you want to challenge the registration as conflicting with your trade mark.

I am also not sure why the WhoIS information does not include the date the current registrant became the registrant.

auDA has called for submissions to be made by 31 January 2014.

Link to the Issues Paper (pdf again)

auDA reviews whoIS policy Read More »

Getting back domain names

Bromberg J has now made orders arising from his Honour’s finding that the use of real1.com.au infringed REA Group’s registered trade mark. Amongst other things, these included orders that the disputed domain names be transferred to REA Group. An expensive exercise in trying to generate value from “real 1”.

On the other hand, Middleton J has rejected Vendor Advocacy Australia’s attempts to get domain names like:

  • http://www.vendoradvocacy.com;
  • http://www.vendoradvocacyaustralia.com;
  • vendoradvocacymelbourne.com;

from a former employee (or contractor), Mr Seitanidis notwithstanding his Honour’s findings about much Mr Seitanidis’ conduct.

Vendor advocates are apparently much in the market these days. A Mr Ian Reid had been operating a vendor advocacy business for a number of years. Some of his advertising did include:

Vendor Advocacy Australia
Vendor Advocacy Australia

but the corporate stationery and much of the other advertising took this form:

Corporate logo
Corporate logo

and the radio advertising also emphasised the personality of Mr Reid.

Vendor Advocacy Australia did not have any registered trade marks and was forced to fall back on misleading or deceptive conduct.

After a detailed discussion of the cases on descriptive terms and secondary meaning, Middleton J held:

…. The phrase “vendor advocacy” is descriptive and was generally used by various traders in the same line of business. I am not satisfied that the words or brand relied upon in this proceeding by VAA have any secondary distinctive meaning. VAA has primarily promoted itself by reference to the persona of Ian Reid. I do not consider that any consumer which assume that a reference to vendor advocacy, or Australian Vendor Advocacy, would be associated with VAA or Ian Reid. In fact, because Ian Reid has been so much at the front of the promotion of VAA, without his presence the consumer may well assume it is not associated with him or VAA. Any imperfect recollection of consumers would arise from VAA’s adoption of a name consisting of descriptive words. The lack of recall will be as a result of the promotional activity adopted by VAA, by reference to the descriptive words ‘vendor advocacy’.

 And so Vendor Advocacy Australia did not get orders for the transfer of the domain names.

One interesting consequence of this is that there may be an inquiry on the undertaking as to damages given for an interlocutory injunction preventing the use of some of the domain names.

Middleton J was willing to take at [257] a fairly robust view about consumers’ familiarity with the use of similar domain names by different companies. His Honour also thought any momentary or transitory confusion which might arise from the use of the domain names would not rise to the level of misleading or deceptive conduct. As his Honour reminded:

In circumstances where a trader adopts a descriptive trade name the use by another trader of a trade name that also uses those descriptive elements will not generally (in itself) constitute misleading or deceptive conduct.

His Honour also joined the growing band of judges who don’t think consumers pay much attention to whether domain names end in .com or .com.au or the like.

 

REA Group Ltd v Real Estate 1 Ltd (No 2) [2013] FCA 968

Vendor Advocacy Australia Pty Ltd v Seitanidis [2013] FCA 971

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