GENEVA — The California Milk Processor Board, which coined the “got milk” phrase and licenses it to dairy farmers and processors, has lost a bid to take over GotMILF.com after arbitrators ruled against it over cybersquatting claims.
Up until October, GotMILF.com included sponsored links to various websites with such headlines as“Meet Gay Men for Sex Now,” “Hot Sex is Here,” “Watch Adult Cams Free 18+” and “Free Gay Men Videos,” according to TheDomains, which first reported the ruling.
But after the California Milk Processor Board sent the domain's owner an email alleging that the domain and its use were in violation of its trademark rights, the site changed. Gone were porn references, and in its place is a site that currently states: "What's a M.I.L.F.? — Coming soon!"
A WIPO arbitrator, writing for the panel, said that the question at the heart of the UDRP dispute is whether the domain name is confusingly similar to complainant’s mark.
"The panel majority concludes that the [GotMILF.com] is not confusingly similar to the mark 'Got Milk,'" the panel ruled. "While the two are doubtless similar, they are not, in the panel majority’s view, confusingly so."
The panel also noted that the two names do not sound alike and that there isn't any evidence of "typosquatting."
"The panel majority simply cannot conclude that a meaningful number of Internet users would be confused by the domain name, nor that Internet users would mistakenly arrive at respondent’s website by virtue of a typographical error," the panel ruled.
GotMILF.com is owned by Del Polikretis, a former Escom CEO, known in the biz as Del Anthony. Polikretis joined Escom after it purchased Sex.com in 2006 for $14 million for what was the highest-priced domain sale at the time. Escom later filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy.