MERIDEN, Conn. — An arbitrator last week, ruling in a cybersquatting case, has ordered the domain name Clips4Free.com transferred to the company that operates Clips4Sale.com.
The operator of Clips4Free.com, which was operated as an adult tube site, merely incorporated a variation of Clips4Sale’s trademark by merely substituting “sale” with “free,” arbitrator Houston Putnam Lowry ruled.
Clips4Free.com even included the colors and borrowed style of Clips4Sale.com, which since 2003 has offered millions of fetish and amateur porn videos by the clip and is owned by Wiluna Holdings LLC, which holds a trademark for the name.
“It is apparent that respondent has targeted Wiluna’s marks,” the arbitrator ruled. “The domain name registered by respondent is identical to or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights."
Further, the respondent, named in the complaint as Lisa Katz of Texas, is not making a “legitimate noncommercial or fair use of the domain name, without intent for commercial gain to misleadingly divert consumers or to tarnish the trademark or service mark at issue,” the arbitrator ruled.
Katz did not respond to the UDRP claim submitted to the Forum arbitration panel.
“Respondent’s website exists solely to attract Internet traffic to its website and/or to otherwise divert Internet users to third-party websites in order to generate revenue through click-through advertising revenue,” the arbitrator ruled.
