Reglikedomain industry desk

Paris.org Owner in French Court — Paris Sues

Paris.org Owner in French Court — Paris Sues

French cyberbullies step up attack.

Paris Trademark FoolsVille de Paris — the City of Paris — is continuing its multi-prong attack on domain name owners by filing a lawsuit against the owner of Paris.org, this time in French Court. The owner has had the domain name since 1995.

The move to Paris is another attempt to find some sort of venue that will give the city exclusive rights to use “Paris” in a domain name. But it’s not a guaranteed win for the city. In fact, it previously lost a trademark case in France and was fined as a result. Perhaps it’s time to start a fresh series on Reglike. I’ll dub it Paris: Ville de Trademark Fools.

Here’s a quick review of Paris’ war on domain name owners:

2006-2007: City of Paris sends threatening cease and desist letters to owners of domain names with Paris in them, counting Paris.com and Paris.tv. Owners of Paris.com and Paris.tv file suit against Paris in American court. Paris runs away and claims lack of jurisdiction.

September 2009: Paris tries its hand at UDRP, filing cases against owners of WifiParis.com, Wifi-Paris.com, and Parvi.org (Parvi is the name of Paris’ municipal wifi project). It loses the Wifi cases, but wins Parvi.org in a disturbing decision.

December 2009: Since Paris agreed to U.S. jurisdiction when it filed the UDRPs, the owner of Parvi.org sues Ville de Paris in Texas court. Then, following running away from the Paris.tv lawsuit years earlier, Paris files a UDRP against Paris.tv. Finally, Ville de Paris takes its case to French court by suing the owner of Paris.org.

Stay tuned to Reglike for updates on Paris: Ville de Trademark Fools.

Also on the wire

Other reporting from the domain desk.

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