Twistys abusing ICANN policies and pushing people around?

well said

What may be tricky is what authority or jurisdiction that the dispute process has. They may be limited in the face of a live trademark. It's possible Hardsextube.com will first have to have the Trademark invalded first.

I'm amazed at how many trademark specialists are here on gfy. I never knew tm law was so black and white.

He'll have to prove 3 things. If even 1 of them can't be proven he loses.

1. The domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights; (most people prove this one easily)

2. The domain name holder has no rights or legitimate interest in respect of the domain name; (he probably won't be able to prove this one, if hdkiller gets a good domain lawyer)

3. The domain has been registered and is being used in bad faith; (he'll most surely lose this one).

hdkiller would have had to be a psychic to know #3 above. Some of these panelists frown on people like Shap abusing the system too, and I hope he gets one of those panelists. His reverse domain hijacking career will have a few stakes driven into his heart early in the game.

The only way I've heard of people losing their domains over something like this is in court. I remember years ago where ICANN stated that they stayed out of most of these problems until it was court ordered to take action. Although that was long time ago I read that and things might have changed, doubt it though.

Looks like they havent...

http://www.icann.org/en/udrp/udrp.htm

All registrars must follow the the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (often referred to as the "UDRP"). Under the policy, most types of trademark-based domain-name disputes must be resolved by agreement, court action, or arbitration before a registrar will cancel, suspend, or transfer a domain name. Disputes alleged to arise from abusive registrations of domain names (for example, cybersquatting) may be addressed by expedited administrative proceedings that the holder of trademark rights initiates by filing a complaint with an approved dispute-resolution service provider.

What I meant by generic is many huge companies have combined two generic terms to create very successful brands. My example was facebook. 2 obviously generic words combined to create a powerful brand. If you attempted to register a site collegefacebook.com or facebooklasvegas.com for example they would have the legal recourse to shut you down.

As alluded to before, this debate shouldn't have even gotten this far!

Imagine if the first adult program that had "Cash" or "Dollars" in its name tried to uphold its "trademark" in this same manner. Or even the first site that had "XXX.com"...(oops, there goes my EroticseXXX.com domain)

Is this truly a road that adult webmasters and programs owners want to go down?

Do we really want to continue rehashing the legalities of this situation over and over? Or are we going to get down to business and make money (or continue posting random stuff at will)?

Ahh, so the ICANN domain dispute process is only for cybersquatting claims and not for trademark then? I didn't know that.

I have to ask how do you guys have the time to make so many posts in this thread and keep up with it? Are you all doing so well you can spend all night on here? I'm just tying to survive and find I have no time for threads like this. But it makes me wonder if others are doing that much better than me. So are you guys all rich? Or is Shap the only rich one here ?

So you don't want your tube TM confused with illegal content however it's fine that Twistys is?

I'm very confused

If MojoHost had a client allegedly infringing on a trademark then it would require proper notification from the complaining party, just as any other host entity would. All matters of this nature are handled by our legal counsel. MojoHost provides fanatical service to it's clientele, which, in some circumstances, extend far beyond managed hosting and into legal realms. It's not pleasant, or inexpensive, to be on the other side of our attorney.

I just had to re-quote these for originality. Shap, now you're famous!

Cyndalin, with regard to my comment earlier, Pleasurepays has best elaborated my stance. As frustrating as these situations may be, they are all certainly subject to our personal opinions of right and wrong. The fact remains that trademarks either exist or don't exist. Whether or not they can or should be upheld is purely a matter of legal remedy.

I will say, however, that I am quite surprised that everyone is calling the combination of "sex" and "tube" into "sextube" a generic phrase. In all fairness to Shap and Beth, I think that their investment in the trademark was actually quite brilliant. They had essentially trademarked a colloquial phrase for the equivalent of 'sex television' and had it defined as a web site with adult content. As a combination of one regular word plus one colloquial word into one new word which had never been utilized before.... that's where brands and brilliant trademarks come from, people.

Tube sites didn't exist just a few years ago. "Tube" as a colloquial phrase or basically synonym for "TV" has been around at least since the 80's when I was prepubescent (LOL). Didn't anyone else have their mom or dad tell them to quit watching the boob-tube? In case what I'm saying is lost in translation for some of those who are English second language, I remember that the television was the 'tube' (more specifically, that it was without any educational merit). LOL

I had a trademark experience with a domain name and also web site content containing the phrase "phone sex personals" or some similar variation. I don't recall if this pre-dated me as a host or post-dated me as a PS marketing company owner. Very generic, very frustrating trademark which was ultimately upheld.

Whether or not "sextube" should be upheld as a trademark is up to venues of legal jurisdiction and/or the tenacity of those others who wish to protect their alleged, infringing assets.

As for what my opinion of the matter is, at this juncture it's not relevant or appropriate to share. If were to be served, the company's position would become solidified and subsequently shared with our client and then ultimately any such complaining party.

Good luck, everyone. Although I can understand the temptation of all parties to discuss in the forums because they are passionate about their respective businesses.. it does seem like poor judgment, IMHO.



Brad

Mojo Man quoted me!!! I'm very excited right now.

Sex.com tried to sue anyone for using "sex" in their domains years ago and lost. So victory is a long shot. And If it came down to suing over the word tube, good luck on that. My guess, and I could be wrong, it's going to cost alot of people alot of money and nothing at all will happen. No precidence, no domains taken, No victories, just once again, the attorneys getting it all.
Duke

omfg really 9 pages lmao

Btw can you guys help me out with something? I've gone thru 5 of the 9 pages in this thread. I haven't seen one decent size program owner or affiliate attack Shap. Is that right or did I miss any? I wonder why that is

ICANN isn't going to give a shit about the size of any program owners or affiliates posting in a GFY thread. They're going to have panelists read submissions from domain attorneys attempting to show that 3 things are met. See previous post.

Sounds like you've decided Shap wins, and Choker loses.

It's all been fake stale drama around here lately. Finally some real drama hits and bam...

Hey Brujah, I asked you a while ago. If I were to go to Hungry, and register HarderSexTube.com, would I be in violation of this other guys Hungarian trademark?

He has trademarked HardSexTube.com, so he must be keen to protect his domain and what he considers his property. If I set up HarderSexTube.com in Hungry, and set up a 'tube site' offering the exact same service as he is, would I be violation of his trademark?

Yeah I saw, but you have nothing interesting for me to reply to. If you want to pay me to teach you or to talk to you, let me know and I'll send you my paypal.

That's what I thought. You are a pussy.

Thanks for playing pussy

they are all bros

I have to agree with you on this.

A lot of people lately seem to think they can bully people around with there power and money and attorneys and they are just blowing smoke.

If shap or someone wants to really sue someone and fight them they better be ready to one day possibly have to deal with someone like me sooner or later that will make your life a living hell and make it impossible to run a business if you piss someone like me off.

Many have tried it with me and lost.

Shit I just had a agent threaten me and I told him bring it I will have so many county and government officials at his door he wont know where to throw his money. Just this morning I just a Cease and Desist letter and laughed at them and asked them how far they really wanted to take it.

Don?t fuck with peoples bread and butter is the moral of the story!

Back off shap or you might just end up having to man up one day with someone like me and you will lose bad. Just a word of advice

not dark, but its slightly grey.

What is this amateur comedy night all of a sudden?

Mr.Right,

ICANN is disfunctional. Get in touch with me privately if you wish general advice on how to possibly approach this.

LOL @ SeizeTheDomain

Try and keep up.

yeah... that deserves a quick lol

I dont see people laughing that have tried it with me

I have a feeling it will be bumped a lot. So enjoy your new business.

gotta admire you for laying it all on the line and no wishy washy talk there

from the domains in twistys and twistys2.txt Shap is infringing on a bunch of trademarks himself

Its the truth

Yea that's the funny thing. HE is going to piss off just the right person on day with doing stuff like this in this thread when he is doing it himself.

I agree with this too. I don't understand why people are getting bent out of shape over him protecting his brand. That doesn't mean he will win in court though.

If this goes to court, the owner of hardsextube will simply argue that his site is one of many online pornographic tube sites and in no way is intended to mimic or infringe on sextube's intellectual property.

The only other case scenario of sextube winning an injunction is if a judge feels hardsextube.com has the potential of confusing the public into somehow being affiliated with sextube.com.

Come on dude. You're smarter than this.

What the hell is the problem? SexTube is a registered TM in the US/Canada. HardSexTube operates out of Europe? So therefore you have no right to try and take his domain. Shap is such a hypocrite its hilarious but that's beside the point.

Don't want to ruin the bro status so they keep their mouths shut.

twistys, huh?

God you're stupid.

He don't care about protecting his SexTube brand.

He just wants to take away by force as many juciy names as possible. Everyone knows tube names cost top dollars nowadays. Especially with tons of traffic.

Anyone here who thinks Shap is going to make any deals to compensate these tube owners, needs a fucking reality check.

Brad, educate yourself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube

I dont care of he's protecting his brand or using his trademark enforcement to gain marketshare. The point of the post was SexTube is a brand and he controls it.

Hey kid, go to bed, you have school tomorrow.

BTW, don't forget to learn how to spell Hungary properly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_distinctiveness

While Wikipedia isn't the best possible source, this page should point a few of you in the right direction, and explain the difference between "hard free ones" or "hard twistys" and "hard sex tube".

I always wondered why pornotube gets preferential treatment on wikipedia and is deemed deserving of its own page? just because of the timing and closeness of the domain name to youtube, they are seen as an authority site in adult tubes and referenced in popular media and get to have a wikipedia page (and all the se and other benefits that having a popular wikipedia page might entail)

And you are correct here. The company I work for has a hate site that we have tried to take offline for years. And we are a $14 billion dollar company with the best lawyers. I think that guy should do a big to Twisty's.

So i'll go register sextubesucks.com and twistyssucks.com and twistscashisapos.com and you know what? All you would be able to do is pay your dumb ass lawyer to send me cease and desist letters that would mean shit.

Sir, what company do you represent?

20 years ago I had a sex club in Amsterdam with the name Twistys despite your Trademark I know if I can proof that I used that word before in same industry you can international eat shit with your trademark. What do you think do you want some fun?