Worldwide Media, a company owned by popular domain investor, Mike Berkens, has won a UDRP filed at the WIPO against the domain X-Videos.com.
The case involved two prominent intellectual property attorneys, the Randazza Legal Group for the Complainant, who owns XVideos.com and John Berryhill for the Respondent.
When the adult industry is involved in a lawsuit, things can get rather sticky.
As part of the legal interaction, the Complainant alleged that along with the XVIDEOS trademark, the fact that the Respondent owns 75,000 domains is an indication of research capabilities and experience, and that due to that, the Respondednt should have been aware of the non-hyphenated variant and mark when they registered the hyphenated version.
On the Respondent’s behalf, John Berryhill made this interesting statement:
“Essentially, the Respondent argues that the term “xvideos”, when used in conjunction with adult-oriented videos, is so descriptive as to be incapable of serving as a trademark. Thus, the Complainant has no rights to exclude any others from using the term in its purely descriptive sense. Specifically, “x” is a commonly understood identifier of pornographic materials and when coupled with the term “videos” for use with adult video related products clearly and unmistakably describes the nature and characteristic of such products.”
A three member panel, consisting of Peter L. Michaelson, M. Scott Donahey and Richard G. Lyon decided that a) the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to the Complainant’s XVIDEOS marks, b) the Complainant has not proven that the Respondent lacks rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name, and c) the Respondent’s registration and use of the disputed domain name do not reflect bad faith.
For the full case click here.
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