The Oscars (AMPAS - Academy of Motion Pictures) versus GoDaddy Trial

High stakes trial with $30,000,000 damages claim set to start August 4 2015

[Webwork]

From HollywoodReporter.com [hollywoodreporter.com ]

AMPAS says it will introduce evidence that GoDaddy generated at least $100 million since 2006 from its Parked Pages Program, that the defendant knew it had a problem with trademarks but chose to monetize them, that it was long capable of implementing filters and that the program was intended to divert people from the official Oscars.org and Oscar.com web sites.

If an entity shares in the profits from a domain registrant's efforts to trade-off a famous mark should the entity be made to "disgorge" (give up) all the profits AND pay a penalty?

If it's possible for a registrant to "filter out" famous marks should they be accountable for those famous marks that are turned into mini profit centers that clearly trade off famous mark?

How would you handle filtering? All "Oscar" domains get added scrutiny? At what cost? There are SO many trademarks that use generic descriptive terms, that do not claim exclusive rights, that filtering looks to be a can of worms. Should there be specific filters? What about notice of registration to trademark holders? What about each registrar offing a searchable database of their registered domains with a "status indicator" -> parked, etc?

In the age of smart computing algos, super fast computing, widespread network connections I think there should be a solution. What is it?

[inbound]

So many angles you could take with this.

Responsibility of...

Trademark owner
Domain registry
Domain registrant
Domain reseller
Advertising network
Advertisers
Parking Service
Payment/Remitance service for any of above

No wonder that lawyers can afford nice suits.

How to deal with it? I don't think there is a good way. Perhaps the best way is to find a simple way to identify the top "offenders" and use existing channels to deal with them; something currently available to trademark owners.

[Leosghost]

Good thing that they didn't call their award the Fred..of course if someone registered 2011freds.com, that would be fine, they could just make it a place for those whose name was Fred,( they could park it for a while, maybe get around to developing it one day ) after all Fred is just a name, and no company could claim exclusive rights to a forename, because there are ( and have been prior to the company's existence ) millions ( not just 2011 ) of people are called Fred..

Wheras there are not ( and have not been ) 2011 ( or millions ) of people called Oscar..

Oh ..wait...

There are also not hundreds ( if not thousands ) of institutions, organisations, ( maybe even individuals* ) that have academy in their name, were such to exist, none of them would ever give awards..

Oh..wait again..

I once knew someone named Symphony..and another named Orchestra..I introduced them..and yes..

[jmccormac]

The interesting aspect, apart from the main claims, is the one that Godaddy made $100 million from its PPC parking operation since 2006. Most of my work now is in measuring web usage and development in TLDs and the extent of Godaddy's PPC landing operation in most TLDs is amazing. However most domainers and ordinary registrants are completely unaware of it.

Regards...jmcc

[inbound]

I agree that trademarks for common words are a pain. However, the limitation of business category makes it easy to see where you are not allowed to use said common word. I'm against blanket claims by trademark holders but the idea that someone who registers a domain that gets significant traffic (off the back of a well-known trademark) isn't aware of the trademark is ridiculous. We are talking about parking here, why do people register names to be parked? It isn't random for people who make significant cash from it.

As a question, because I really don't know but suspect it to be so, isn't parking dying a death because type-ins are less common?

[Leosghost]

<aside>
I have around 150 domains parked with GD, because the parking "service" is included in the domains discount package..I didn't park them for the income ( as you suspect, the "type-ins" are less common since search engines began using the address bars of browsers ) but for research whilst I get around to developing each one..
The parking there ( maybe the same at other registrars ), does not get "interest based" ads..all ads that I have ever seen there ( when typing into the address bar directly any domain that I own ) upon landing, are related very closely to the domain names..as I have a large percentage of EMDs in my domains that are parked there..this allows me to see "clean ads"..( usually text ads only ) prior to development..useful ..

The annual income from just the clicks on the type-ins is about the cost of the annual renewals..Having had most of them for between 5 and 10 years, I'm surprised at the revenue figures quoted..although many of my EMDs are not English language ( non are "squatting" in any way, in any language, no trademarks etc, that I do not own ), maybe parking English language EMD trademarks is / has been lucrative for some, and my ethics have denied me a rich domain squatters lifestyle..

Ah well..
</aside>

[lucy24]

GoDaddy asserts that it made less than $350 in advertising revenue from the 293 domains

Net or gross?

if someone registered 2011freds.com, that would be fine

I thought 2011 was the Musical Island Boys. Just kidding. It was Old School.

it will introduce testimonial evidence regarding the myriad definitions and meanings of the term “oscar.”

To be countered with testimonial evidence regarding the myriad definitions and meanings of the word "disingenuous".

Seriously, it sounds like the plaintiff and defendant deserve each other.

[jmccormac]

The mention of how much Godaddy makes from its PPC parking seems to be an indication of how things might progress in that it may be trying to show that Godaddy benefits from the infringement of trademarks and that it is not accidental.

Regards...jmcc