2014-07-09

Tesla Sued by China Trademark Claimant and Domain Name Owner

Trademarks, sovereignty, and domain names -- it's all a BIG mess and getting worse thanks to ICANN and its new gTLDs and UDRP policy* --

Tesla Sued by Businesseman Claiming China Trademark Right - Bloomberg: ".... SAIC’s Trademark Review and Adjudication Board then revoked his Tesla trademarks in July 2013 in response to the U.S. carmaker’s request. Zhan, who also has the Tesla.cn Internet domain redirect to his Twitter account, said he’s appealed and the case is under review. Trademark rulings become official when appeals end, according to Chinese law. “We have brought multiple actions against Zhan on account of his theft of our trademarks, and various Chinese authorities that have ruled on the matter have agreed with Tesla,” Sproule said. Zhan’s lawsuit “will not stop us in any way from operating in China,” he said...." (read more at link above)

Perhaps we will next see Mr. Zhan (tesla.cn) and Tesla Motors (teslamotors.com) cross-file UDRPs against each other -- that might be fun to watch. Just wait until we have all 1300+ new gTLDs launched!

*Resources - ICANN: "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."

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