Ted Turner Loses Claim to TedTurner.com

Recently, a split World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Panel ruled against Ted Turner, refusing his ICANN UDRP claim for the domain name tedturner.com, which was registered by a Montreal student in 1999. The dispute over the domain name began when Mr. Turner and his "˜Ted Turner Film Properties LLC' (TTFP) filed a US trade-mark application for "˜Ted Turner Pictures LLC'. The three-member Panel agreed that the disputed domain name was identical to any common law mark held by Mr. Turner. The question to be determined was whether Mr. Turner had such a trade-mark. While Turner was a well-known personality worldwide at the time the name was registered and since, the Panel held that the inclusion of the Turner name in that of several media companies was not enough to make the name "˜Ted Turner' a trade-mark at common law. The majority of the Panel was assisted in their analysis by a review of the categorization of previous decisions in Asper Communication X Inc., WIPO Case No. D2001-0540, where a disputed domain name had been held to have been identical or confusingly similar to a Complainant's common law mark found to exist in the Complainant's professional personal name. The majority held that there was insufficient evidence produced in the Complaint evidencing that Ted Turner has ever offered goods or services under that name, or that the name has acquired any secondary meaning in relation to any goods or services. To view a copy of the decision, visit: http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2002/d2002-0251.html