The Party Gaming group has been busy defending its trade marks and
domains, judging by the latest report from the Geneva based World
Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) a body which arbitrates
on domain disputes.
Case number D.2006-0470, adjudicated by Gerd F. Kunze refers to a
dispute over the domain "partypokerplay.com" registered
with GoDaddy by OX5 Consulting L.L.C., Dover, Delaware, United States
of America. Laying the complaint is Party Gaming of Gibraltar, represented
by an American legal company which presents an impressive list of
intellectual property protection for Party Gaming from a wide spread
of international authorities.
All the detail is here
but long story short is that Party prevailed in the case where the
finding was that the domain name <partypokerplay.com> is confusingly
similar to the trademark 'Party Poker' of the complainant. The WIPO
ruling accordingly orders that the domain name <partypokerplay.com>
be transferred to the complainant.
From other references in the case report it is clear that Party has
been successfully pursuing other infringements of its intellectual
property rights, and clearly means business in protecting its brands
and identities.
Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center
was established in 1994 to offer Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
options, in particular arbitration and mediation, for the resolution
of international commercial disputes between private parties. Developed
by leading experts in cross-border dispute settlement, the procedures
offered by the centre are widely recognized as particularly appropriate
for technology, entertainment and other disputes involving intellectual
property.
The last annual report by WIPO saw a 20 percent increase in the number
of cybersquatting (abusive registration of trademarks as domain names)
cases filed in 2005 as compared to 2004. In 2005, a total of 1 456
cybersquatting cases were filed with WIPO’s Arbitration and
Mediation Center. This increase represents the highest number of cybersquatting
cases handled by the WIPO Center since 2001.
WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Center has handled a total
of over 8 350 disputes, involving parties from 127 countries and covering
some 16 000 domain names since the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution
Policy (UDRP) – a quick and cost effective dispute resolution
procedure – went into effect in December 1999.