Online Property Rights Threatened As Government Body Agrees To ...

Morning Folks!!

This Press Release will be coming out on Monday Morning. Here is a sneak peak to start the circulation a bit early. My thanks to Danny Pryor and Howard Neu for helping to compose this.?

Rick Schwartz

Online Property Rights Threatened As Government Body Agrees To Hear Complaint

Are Personal Property Rights In Jeopardy As Foreign Company Tries To Influence American and International Trade Policy?

Are United States citizens and companies that use the famous dot-com extension, as most U.S.-based companies do, now a target of foreign companies that want your domain or your business?

A pair of Brazilian companies have filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO against a Florida man, hoping to exploit volatile loopholes in trademark laws and Internet administrative procedure to seize the generic domain name saveme.com that was registered in 1996.? The Brazilian companies, Online Services, Ltd. and E-Commerce Media Group Information and Technology, Ltd., of Sao Paolo, Brazil, filed their complaint against eRealestate.com of Boca Raton, Florida, on March 13, 2012. ?They own the domain saveme.com.br, which is a country code domain name specifically for Brazil that they started using just last year.

While the original complaint was rejected last month because it was found ?Deficient?, an updated version of the complaint was re-filed on March 24 after WIPO sent the case back to the filers for modifications, notably that the original complaint had not been signed and that bad faith allegations had not been fully met. ?

A search of the WIPO trademark database reveals no other pending or actual trademark assignments for the either the phrase "save me" or the term "saveme", as a combined word, assigned to the companies. They even noted in their complaint that they had no trademark and blamed the Brazilian Government itself.?

Rick Schwartz, who is prominent online when it comes to domain names, said, "This is a perfect example of 'Reverse Domain Hijacking', in which a party with no rights whatsoever, tries to bully folks into giving up their domain name, and the domain name owner in many cases can?t afford to defend its property that often costs many thousands of dollars. The Brazilian Complainants must show that in 1996, I registered the name in ?Bad Faith? and somehow knew a company half a world away would use that name 16 years later.?

Schwartz added, "We are determined to let folks who may own valuable dot-com real estate know what is to come, as a bad decision here could have a huge impact on online business.? In fact, it could make U.S. businesses much more vulnerable, because we rely on dot-com for our online presence and commerce, as opposed to other extensions or country codes.??

The Brazilian companies have asked WIPO for a three-member arbitration panel, composed entirely of Brazilian nationals, in what appears to be a blatant effort to stack the deck against the U.S. company.? While the responding company has the right to request different members, there is no guarantee WIPO will appoint any specific members requested by either party.

Paul Keating, a world-renowned Internet Attorney specifically observed that WIPO provided the complainant in the saveme.com UDRP case, "a second bite at the apple, because they are being advised to review and correct substantive issues pertaining to their burden of proof."?

WIPO, on the other hand, will not provide Mr. Schwartz with a second bite of the apple if he fails in his efforts to defend his domain of 16 years! Not exactly an even playing field. He will be forced to file a new action in U.S. Federal Court for relief.? Mr. Schwartz is represented in the WIPO case by well-known Internet attorney, Howard Neu, Esq.

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