Sir Richard Branson wins rights to richardbranson.xxx

[DVTimes]

Sir Richard Branson has won control of the domain name richardbranson.xxx.

The tycoon had been in dispute with Australian Sean Truman, who registered the domain name last year.

The National Arbitration Forum (NAF), a US-based adjudication body, ruled that Mr Truman had registered and used richardbranson.xxx "in bad faith".

The .xxx domain was introduced as a home for pornography and other adult-orientated web sites in 2011.

"We worry about the misuse of Sir Richard's name and he is pleased that we now have it under our ownership," said Nick Fox, a spokesman for the founder of the Virgin business empire.

Icann, the body which has overall responsibility for domain names, had ordered the transfer of the richardbranson.xxx domain name to Virgin, Mr Fox added.

Trademark owners were given the opportunity to block the registration of an .xxx domain name last year before they were made available for general public registration.

Mr Fox said that Virgin was in the process of doing this when Mr Truman registered it, four days after general availability.

'Sex sells'

In Mr Truman's argument to the NAF, he contended that he had registered the domain name as a "souvenir" because of his admiration of Sir Richard.

He argued that Sir Richard has a history of using the "sex sells" principle in his business activities, using "Virgin" as a generic brand name.

The NAF ruled that Mr Truman should have recognized that his registration and control of richardbranson.xxx "would serve to vex or embarrass" Sir Richard.

Thomas Frederiksen, chief operating officer at UK web hosting company One.com, warned that the .xxx domain could cause serious problems for businesses.

"If someone has registered your company's name, or in this case the name of your CEO, it can permanently damage your brand," he said.

"This is a unique case as not all company CEOs will be able to argue that their name is protected under intellectual property law."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17140357

[Fletch XXX]

wasnt much of a battle.

[Phoenix]

another total badass...as if you have a chance of winning against him in court..lol

i saw him on the island of Jeju off the coast of Korea. He was wind surfing. I knew it was him as it looked like him, and he had 3 army guards all carrying very large guns as bodyguards.

[baryl]

I'm sure there's a niche for people who want to fap to Sir Richard Branson.

[borked]

the beeb is quite slow ;)

Virgin boss victorious in .xxx Branson pickle

Cyber-squatter owns diddly-squat in domain ruling
By Kevin Murphy • Get more from this author

Posted in Hosting, 21st February 2012 09:35 GMT

what I didn't know was this:

Uniquely, the .xxx space has a second way of resolving cybersquatting disputes that is much faster, more secretive, and turning out to be just as popular as the standard UDRP.

This Rapid Evaluation Service, which can take down an obviously cybersquatted domain in as little as two days, has been invoked 15 times so far, according to the National Arbitration Forum, which handles the cases. NAF has taken down 12 .xxx cybersquats since December, according to recently released statistics. Each case took on average two days for a preliminary decision.

Unlike UDRP, which transfers the domain to the aggrieved party, domains seized under the $1,300 RES are turned off permanently, so the winner does not have to pay annual recurring fees.

But RES decisions are not published, so it's not clear which domains were cybersquatted or what rationale the NAF panelists used to suspend the domains.

source: theregister