MILTON KEYNES, England - Safenames, an online brand protection services company and global domain name registrar, successfully recovered multiple domain names for five revered members of the English Premier League. In the fiercely contested English Premier League, it is rare if not unimaginable that the clubs would unite, but in order to address the shared problem of online trademark infringement cases that illegally profit from famous and beloved brands; the decision to form an alliance was simple.
By working with representatives from the English Premier League head office along with officials from Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham, and West Ham football clubs, Safenames was able to establish a common link between the individual online trademark infringement cases. As a result, Safenames filed the unprecedented single complaint, on behalf of the five Premier League clubs, with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center using the Uniform Resolution Policy (UDRP). The WIPO Panel ruled in favour of the Premier League Clubs after finding that the facts presented by Safenames justified that the use of the domain names were identically or confusingly similar to that of the trademark holders and the respondent had no right or legitimate interests to use the names. The registration rights for official-liverpool- tickets.com, official-manchester-tickets.com, official-tottenham-tickets.com, official-fulham-tickets.com and official-westham-tickets.com have been awarded to their respective clubs.
“We are delighted at the arbitration panel’s decision to award the domains to their rightful trademark holders. Unauthorised use of trademarks in the form of domain names is quite a common problem and one that continues to grow as Internet usage grows. There is no industry immune from this damaging issue and we were very happy to assist some of the world’s leading brands in professional sport with fighting this battle.” said Head Counsel for Safenames, Prudence Malinki, who filed the unprecedented UDRP on behalf of the Premier League clubs.
Safenames has been on the forefront of global trademark infringement detection and domain name recovery services for years. The recently launched Safenames’ Mark Protect service enables companies to identify and prioritise recovery of domains infringement on their brands was instrumental in gathering the facts used to build this case. Mark Protect combined with Safenames’ legal expertise on domain dispute filings allowed the case to be resolved in less than two months with a successful result.
Visit www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2009/d2009-0331.html to review the complete WIPO decision.
Safenames Ltd
Safenames, www.safenames.net, are a leading global domain name registration company that specialises in corporate domain portfolio management and online trademark infringement protection services. The company is headquartered in Milton Keynes, England with regional offices in Vienna, Virginia, and Sydney, Australia. Safenames is a privately held company founded in 1997 and received ICANN accreditation in 2002.
Reporter relations contact: Steve Miholovich, Head of Marketing +1-703-574-5313 or steve.miholovich@safenames.net
Source: Safenames Ltd
Reporter relations contact: Steve Miholovich, Head of Marketing, +1-703-574-5313 or steve.miholovich at safenames.net
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