LONDON — In a cybersquatting case, a WIPO arbitrator last week awarded the domain name YouPorn.tv to adult entertainment conglomerate MindGeek, which operates the pioneering tube site YouPorn.com.
MindGeek contended in the complainant requesting a transfer of the URL that the owner of the YouPorn.tv domain name, Michael Ott of Juechen, Germany, had improperly registered the name. Ott did not respond to the complaint.
YouPorn.tv, according to an internet archive search, was used as a competing adult tube site as late as February. The domain was first registered in 2013.
In its demand for a transfer, MindGeek said that the YouPorn.tv domain name is confusingly similar to a trademark in which it has rights; that Ott had no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and that the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith.
The arbitrator in the case, panelist Tony Willoughby, agreed and ordered the domain name transferred to MindGeek.
Since launching in August 2006, YouPorn.com grew to become the most popular porn site on the internet and currently ranks as the 161st most visited website in the world.
YouPorn.com was founded by Jonathan Todd, who was instrumental in monetizing the site and still to this day goes by the moniker the “YouPorn Guy,” and sold to MindGeek for an undisclosed sum in 2011.