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This has nothing to do with TV,
classic, or otherwise... It all started on May 19,
2002. I woke up at the crack of noon (like any other chronic
TV watcher) and checked my e-mail. Usually my mailbox is full
of email from my web site, people writing me questions about classic
TV. On this day it was empty, except for some spam, and a note
from Pavan Patel. Pavan provides me with news and TV
schedules. He wanted to know what was up with my site, he said
it was gone, and a new site was in its place. This
couldn't be. I update my site several times a day, and I
always check my work to see how it looks. I've learned that
Pavan always gets his facts straight, and today was no
exception. I checked, and by George, my site was
gone.
The domain name, which had been www.askmorty.com was
now registered to a company in Hong Kong called Ultimate
Search. The problem was that when I bought the domain, I used
my mail address at a company called Mailroom.com, and they went out
of business. The company that registers domains tried to reach
me by email to tell me the site needed to be renewed, but couldn't
reach me, so the name became available.
But certainly the company in Hong Kong couldn't keep my name,
I've been using it since 1997. I called my lawyer. It
was a long conversation, that mostly involved her telling me all the
things I couldn't do. She felt that the
simplest, cheapest way to deal with this was to buy it back.
Whatever price they'd ask, would be cheaper than legal actions.
So our first step was to contact Ultimate Search in Hong Kong and
find out what the magic number would be to make them sell. I
expected a speedy reply, and an outrageous price. I
didn't get either. It turns out they're not interested in
selling the name, period! Ultimate Search just wants a
collection of good names to run portals from that will get hits from
lost cyber-surfers.
So now it means doing something legal to get it back.
Lawyers rarely go into court to request something without past legal
precedent. Because this company buys lots of domains, I
felt finding precedent shouldn't be a problem. There must be
dozens of suits against them, and considering what they do, cases
they've lost. Wrong! The domain name disputes are
settled through arbiters. There have been several arbitrations
involving Ultimate Search, and guess what: They've won every
one.
One notable case involved Price-Waterhouse-Coopers, the
accounting firm that tallies the votes for The Academy Awards®.
Their domain, www.PWC.com, expired just like mine. They went
to arbitration, with all kinds of legal precedent, and with all due
respect to my attorney, more legal power than I have, or could ever
afford. Price-Waterhouse-Coopers lost! With this
information I just plain gave up on my quest to get my name
back.
In March of 2002 a British poetry society, a registered charity
sustained by the Arts Council and 3,500 members lost their
name, www.poetrysoc.com to Ultimate Search Inc.. They
expected legal fees to run as high as £20,000, the amount paid has
not been disclosed, but they did get their name back. Some
sources have reported Ultimate Search returned the name free of
charge because a barrage of bad press. "Bad Press?"
Ultimate Search Inc. is listed in every internet directory of
"Allegedly Unethical Firms."
Williams, Babbit & Weisman, Inc., a collection agency,
lost their name, www.WBW.com to Ultimate Search Inc.. After a
costly arbitration, it was determined that
"Complainant fails to show bad faith on the part of
Respondent.." and the site remains the property of Ultimate
Search Inc..
The Grocery Outlet had been doing business with the name
www.groceryoutlet.com for over a decade. Their web
designer was responsible for renewing their name. Never fire
the person responsible for renewals. They lost their name,
went to arbitration, and: "We find that the mark claim
has not been proven, that the Respondent’s interest is legitimate
and that bad faith has not been proven."
www.stammer.com, www.mitterrand.com, www.autointernational.com,
www.massbike.com, www.healthexplorer.com, www.cyberrussia.com
and even www.greatchina.com, a China Travel destinations site have
lost their domain names to the Hong Kong Ultimate Search Inc..
The web sites: hoopla.com, gwentown.com and smug.com, have had their
names snatched up by soeasy.net, a Taiwan Search Engine/Portal
company. When the classic TV web site, DesiLuWeb gave up their
domain, they were distressed to find that the name was bought by a
porn site, it's now a portal owned by a company in Tallinn, Estonia
(it's near Denmark, I think).
The former owner of www.succaland.com, Nicholas
Taylor, lost his domain lost his domain in April of 2002 to
Ultimate Search. He still wants it back and has started a blog
about the case that can be read at MetaFilter.com
.
Ultimate Search web sites are powered by software by Plutus
Software. If you'd like to know more about arbitration,
it's handled by National
Arbitration Forum.
Sure, I'd like AskMorty.com back, and I'd like to be taller too.
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