The new generic top-level domain (gTLD) .CHARITY was launched last 9 August 2018, and is now available to the general public. There are no registration requirements for .CHARITY domains, which may, of course, be used in relation to individuals and organizations engaged in philanthropy, charitable giving, cause-related fundraising, and other philanthropic initiatives to concretize online…
On February 24, 2014, French customs visited the offices of a company called “Parisac”. The customs seized nearly 4,000 counterfeit Chanel and Céline bags imported from China. Parisac and its manager, Mr. X., were prosecuted in the Criminal Court for counterfeiting and importing counterfeit goods. On May 4, 2015, the Criminal Court found them guilty….
Mr. R. operates the websites rsimport.com and eurojante.com. The BMW companies have been informed that these tunning websites have a large number of BMW and MINI branded rims. Therefore, BMW managed to have a so-called saisie-contrefaçon conducted in the premises of Mr. R. Under French law, saisie-contrefaçon relates to Article 7(1) of the Directive 2004/48/EC of 29…
“The scale of counterfeit Juul products is alarming,” said Kevin Burns, managing director of Juul Labs. (Juul) (Juul.com, September 11, 2018). The dazzling success of this young e-cigarette maker founded in 2017 comes with a big wave of counterfeits. To counter this, Juul collected a number of pieces of evidence and produced them before the…
The announcement of a commercial partnership between Nestlé (nestle.com, May 7, 2018) and Starbucks (starbucks.com, August 28, 2018) led to cybersquatting cases. Many domain names combining the “nestle” and “starbucks” trademarks were registered. DRP proceedings were initiated, including the D2018-1183 procedure undertaken by the Nestlé Products Corporation against a US citizen who had registered two…
The new gTLD .SPORT targets federations, sports organizations, clubs, teams, their athletes, their sponsors, but also sports brands and the media. SPORTt has its rules, so the .SPORT. Eligibility rules apply. The choice of domain names is not free and, for now, the time of registration either. First Rule: Eligibility Sport is for everyone, not the…
Can a company (company A) register a domain name (say companyb.com) that is identical to the trademark of its main competitor (company B), and redirects it to its own website (companya.com)? Surprisingly, it appears that the issue still deserves to be raised. Two Canadian publishers fought in a dispute resolution process concerning a .CA domain…
Dubai In the first half of 2018, Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) closed 4,879 social media accounts and 30 websites involved in the sale of counterfeit goods. This initiative is part of the efforts of the Dubai authorities to participate in the protection of trademarks (Golfnews.com, 5 August 2018). Borneo Ministry of Domestic Trade…
While it had just made a thundering entry to Nasdaq, the Chinese marketplace Pinduoduo, entered the turmoil. Pinduoduo is under scrutiny after China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (CSAMR) announced that it was investigating claims according to which Pinduoduo would sell counterfeit goods. Pinduoduo is accused of being lenient in the fight against counterfeiting. The CSAMR’s announcement…
On July 16, the National Copyright Administration and the National Network Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly held the “Jianwang 2018” special action briefing in Beijing, announcing the launch of the “2018 Net Sword Action” (剑网行动). The 2018 campaign turns the spotlight on copyright infringement…
Phishing is the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information, often for malicious reasons, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. This practice uses domains identical or very similar to well-known brands: banks, insurance companies or airline companies are very often victims of these attacks. A number of elements help to create large-scale…
Registry operator Minds and Machine is launching the new gTLD .LUXE on 9 August. This extension targeted the luxury market, just as .luxury, but the Registry switched strategy and now markets this extension as a means of exchanging crypto-currencies: .luxe Lets yoU eXchange Easily. There is no registration requirement for .luxe domains, which may, of…
