Wants to own the term “Philly” — Philadelphia Inquirer

Firm loses dispute over domain name that includes “Philly”.

Philadelphia’s dominant newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and its parent firm apparently think they own the term “Philly”.

True, the newspaper’s home on the web is Philly.com. But anyone who has ever eaten a Philly cheesesteak knows that it’s a common nickname for the city.

So it’s with a bit of surprise that the firm decided to go following a local news site, Philly2Philly.com, claiming that it was cybersquatting on its trademark for Philly.com.

The paper’s owner, Philadelphia Media Network, filed a cybersquatting complaint against Philly2Philly.com and lost hands down. The arbitration panel didn’t find that the paper had tried reverse domain name hijacking, but it certainly doesn’t look good.

The respondent has its own federally registered trademark for Philly2Philly.com, although the paper is also challenging that.

Oh man, I’m hungry for a Philly cheesesteak now. I think I’ll head over to Texadelphia.