From Biden probe fails to win cybersquatting claim — Kazakhstani businessman

Kenes Rakishev filed a dispute against a domain used as a criticism site.

A Kazakhstani oligarch whose name came up in a probe into Joe Biden and Hunter Biden has lost an attempt to take down a gripe site. Still

Kenes (Kenges) Rakishev filed a cybersquatting dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against the domain name kenesrakishev.com.

Rakishev used to own the domain name, but he let it expire in 2023.

Felix Sater of Regency Capital Group purchased the domain in an expired domain auction this year. The domain name resolved to a website with the headline “The Kenes Rakishev Note Evidence from Biden Impeachment Inquiry.”

Businesspeople often have difficulty proving that they have trademark rights in their name, which is required to win a cybersquatting dispute under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

That was the case here, as panelist Assen Alexiev noted (PDF) that the Complainant’s statements “do not show that the Complainant or any of the firms in which he participates has used his personal name in a source-identifying sense as an identifier of any goods or services offered on the market.”

Despite the loss, the domain name right now forwards to Rakishev’s official website at KengesRakishev.com. Whois records show that Sater is still the registrant of the domain name.

Schillings International LLP represented Rakishev.