The UDRP Blog™

In Greenvelope, LLC v. Virtual Services Corp. , Wipo Case No. D2017-0006 (Christopher Gibson, February 25, 2017), the Panel denied Greenvelope’s Complaint requesting transfer of greenenvelope.com, despite Greenvelope’s ownership of the federally registered trademark GREENVELOPE and the fact that the Respondent entered no response to the Complaint. As a reminder, to prevail in a UDRP dispute, a complainant must demonstrate three elements: The domain name registered by the respondent is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights; The respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and The respondent has registered and is using the domain name in bad faith. Examining each of these factors in turn, the Panel first concluded that Complainant’s trademark, GREENVELOPE is confusingly similar to the domain greenenvelope.com, as Complainant’s mark “evokes the terms ‘green’ and ‘envelope,’” despite ...

Well hello there! Let's see, it looks like it has been nearly nine years since my last blog post on one of my favorite topics, Internet domain disputes! Over that time I did not update this page with good reason-- after spending the first eight years of my legal career in private practice, I transitioned to two roles as in-house counsel for prominent multi-billion dollar global corporations. First, I spent over five years as Trademark Counsel at Under Armour, Inc. , and then spent nearly three years as President and Counsel at Hershey Chocolate & Confectionery Corporation . While those positions were fulfilling, greatly expanded my legal knowledge, and provided invaluable experience, neither company was too excited about me maintaining a blog on issues not pertaining to them. Fair enough. But the exciting news is that this year I made the decision to return to private practice, where I now have the opportunity to represent multiple clients and do what I love most-- advocating...