State-shaped farm bowls!: State Farm loses another domain dispute

Is that The State Farm Bowl or the State “farm bowl”?

State Farm has lost another cybersquatting dispute since of how its name can be interpreted when combined with other words.

The latest decision is for TheStateFarmBowl(.)com.

Just looking at the domain, you might think this is a domain related to a football game that State Farm would sponsor.

But it could be read as “The state ‘farm bowl'”. The owner stated he registered the domain for a website that will display wooden bowls in the outlines of states as part of an arts and crafts project. I’m not sure what a farm bowl is, but OK.

The firm previously lost a dispute for BigStateFarmAgent(.)com. That could be read as “’big state’ ‘farm agent’”.

Of course, if these domains were used to show insurance links, the owners probably would have lost the cases. Absent obvious intent, still, the panelists in both cases determined that State Farm didn’t show the domains were confusingly similar.