PIR get wins for IDN top level domain names — Verisign and
Firm that offered pseudo-domains loses objections to IDN top level domains.
Verisign and Public Interest Registry have successfully defended applications for internationalized domain names that are transliterations of existing top level domain names.
Regtime Ltd. and Legato Ltd filed legal rights objections against Verisign’s application for .ком and PIR’s application for .орг. These are transliterations of .com and .org, respectively, in Cyrillic.
The objectors have offered these as pseudo domain names for over a decade. Of course, they weren’t official top level domain names. For clients to get them to work, they had to install a browser plugin.
Panelist Assen Alexiev determined that operating these as a sort of alt-root domain and getting trademarks on them was not enough to block the fresh top level domain name applications. He also noted that the trademarks did not cover offering domain name registrations.
Alexiev ruled that the buyout of the trademarks wasn’t bona fide, since they were marketed as alternative’s to .com and .org, which the objectors did not control:
Taking the above into account, the Panel is inclined to accept that the conduct of Regtime actually shows an attempt to secure for itself exclusive rights in relation to domain name registration services to the Cyrillic transliteration of the .com gTLD, the popularity of which domain has been established by others without the contribution of Regtime. In the Panel’s view, such use of rights would not be legitimate.
