Following the launch of the .XXX domain Virgin's Richard Branson has gained control of richardbrason.xxx originally held by a third-party
Virgin head Sir Richard Branson has managed to secure control of a potentially damaging URL from a cybersquatter, gaining the rights to RichardBranson.xxx.
Having entered into a legal dispute last month with Australian Sean Truman, who had originally snapped up the explicitly suffixed URL, Branson and the Virgin legal team have now been award the rights to the site by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
With companies and notable personalities given a period of rights last year to register sensitive .XXX domains in order to avoid embarrassment Virgin, which seemingly overlooked this period, filed an application with the National Arbitration Forum in an attempt to gain control of the potentially damaging richardbranson.xxx domain from deemed cybersquatter Truman.
Despite claiming to have registered the site as a "souvenir," Truman was deemed be a WIPO investigation to have filed the URL application in "bad faith" and thus lacked full rights to the site.
Suggesting Branson had been given "ample opportunity to register the name if he believed that his rights may be under threat by another person," Truman has been ordered to hand the adult branded domain over to Virgin.
Confirming the company's intentions to enter into a legal filing to resolve its .xxx concerns, a Virgin spokesperson recently stated: "We have a complaint against the owner of richardbranson.xxx.”
They added: "We spend a lot of time protecting the Virgin brand and the Richard Branson name and increasingly this takes us online. We do see this as a growing problem with the changes to top-level domains and we [are] not alone.”
Controversial with both web activists and the adult industry the first .XXX websites hit the on December 6th of last year. The decision to allow .XXX domains caused companies to complain at the amount it would cost to protect themselves against unwanted cybersquatters and harm to brand image.
Should brands and celebs be able to demand control of potentially damaging domain names after being the option to protect themselves? Let us know what you think via the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds.
Via: TheRegister
