“School Webmasters” Back to School — NameMedia Sends
Arizona firm loses domain name dispute over SchoolWebmaster.com.
NameMedia, which runs domain name marketplaces Afternic and BuyDomains, has taught the owner of SchoolWebmasters.com a lesson.
ScribeWrite, LLC operates as School Webmasters (schoolwebmasters.com), which provides web site services to schools and teachers. It filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum in July, asking for it to award the domain name SchoolWebmaster.com (singular) to it.
NameMedia purchased SchoolWebmaster.com in 2006 following it expired. This was months ahead of ScribeWrite even started using “School Webmaster” as a mark in commerce as stated by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records.
Nevertheless, ScribeWrite didn’t want to to pay much for the domain name. It sent a cease and desist letter to NameMedia demanding the domain name for $800.
When that failed it paid $1,000+ to hire a lawyer and file a UDRP.
The UDRP panelist found the domain name wasn’t registered in bad faith and that NameMedia has rights and legitimate interests in the domain — one of hundreds it owns that combine a generic term with “webmaster”.
NameMedia’s current asking price for SchoolWebmaster.com? Just $3,088. A little negotiation could get that down to $2,000 or $2,500. So I’m confused by ScribeWrite’s approach to getting the domain.
