Back in the early days of the internet, actors who wanted control of their own domains were held to ransom by opportunists who bought up these URL’s and then profiteered when said actor wanted control of their own .com. Over the years, Lucasfilm have had to tackle a number of similar situations, a situation that continues to this day as IP Pro Magazine take a look at two such domains – starwarsgalaxysedge.com and starwarslands.com – that a court ruled were registered in bad faith.
The registrant, Ben Clark, was accused of controlling the domains to prevent Disney from “reflecting its mark in corresponding domain names”.
According to Disney and Lucasfilm, Clark was intentionally attempting to gain internet traffic for commercial gain.
Sole panellist Charles Kuechenmeister ruled in favour of Disney and Lucasfilm, agreeing that the domains were registered in bad faith and that they were confusingly similar to Disney trademarks.
