Citizen journalist takes domain dispute to federal court after new name-based domains appear
in plain words
A writer who won a fight over website names is now going to court. The company he fought kept registering new web addresses that copy his name and posting articles about him. A UDRP is a quick process for taking back domain names, but it cannot stop new names from being registered.
Full summary
Paul Mulholland, a citizen journalist, won a UDRP Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy ICANN's out-of-court process for trademark disputes over domain names. Full definition of UDRP case against a porn studio earlier this year, and the studio was forced to hand over the disputed domains. The win did not last long, according to the source. The company quickly registered new domains that included variations of his name and published more content about him there.
Mulholland had published an exposé about the studio, which he says prompted the retaliation. He says the company posted defamatory articles about him on domain name A readable internet name made of labels separated by dots. Full definition of domain name that incorporated variations of his personal name.
The source notes that the UDRP can force the transfer of specific domain names but cannot prevent someone from registering new ones and continuing the same behavior. Mulholland has therefore taken the dispute to court.
On Monday, he filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. He asks the court to rule in his favor on defamation claims, order the transfer of the newly registered domains, and issue an injunction stopping the studio from registering additional domains similar to his name. Brett Lewis of Lewis & Lin, who represented him in the UDRP, is also representing him in the lawsuit.