Microsoft goes after Bing cybersquatters.
Microsoft has filed a lawsuit (pdf) against a California man and several John Does over their registration of domain names containing the “Bing” mark. The suit lists 21 allegedly infringing domain names ranging from aolbing.com to BingPornTube.com to Bing-Search.com.
Microsoft says that over 1,500 domain names containing “bing” were registered each month in the two months following the announcement of its search engine name.
The company is asking the court to hand over the domain names, the defendants to pay legal fees and damages, as well as $100,000 in statutory damages under the Anti-Cybersquatting Protection Act.
My guess is that Davies is a small-time cybersquatter who doesn’t know what he’s doing, given that the domain names are mostly parked with GoDaddy’s “free” parking for which he doesn’t earn click-through revenue. Every time a large company announces a new product there are people who register related domain names thinking they’re going to hit pay dirt. They aren’t aware of the law.
DomainersChoice says
“Anti-Cybersquatting Protection Act” it is an American “law” and doesn’t really affect people in other countries. Microsoft registered ing.ccTLD so are they squatting on ING bank?
mansour says
Bill Gates – live and let live. The word ‘bing’ was not invented by you. You have used it for your profit, however it is part of the dictionary. According to the Oxford dictionary, it was created in the 19th century. I am not sure until today how anyone can get a trademark on a dictionary word. Copied below the information I found explaining the word ‘bing.’
Origin:
late 19th century (originally dialect in the sense ‘sudden bang’): imitative
(bing)Pronunciation:/biNG/exclamation
indicating a sudden action or event:
Bing! They’ve hit you with something
RedCat Domains says
“It is an American ‘law’ and doesn’t really affect people in other countries.” This is not exactly true. There is an extraterritorial aspect to the ACPA. Even if a plaintiff could not demonstrate the personal jurisdiction required for damages, they could still win the transfer of a domain registered at a U.S. company such as GoDaddy.
mansour says
The trademark is not even registered.
Serial Number: 77681512 Assignment Information Trademark Document Retrieval
Registration Number: (NOT AVAILABLE)
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77681512
DomainersChoice says
The trademark was refused at least once. Also BING is also Chinese word.
Andrew Allemann says
Just a quick update…after Microsoft filed the case the defendant filed for bankruptcy.