Poker.com Inc continues fight over ‘hijacked’ URL

UDRP arbitrator dismisses case

By Tim Richardson • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 21st February 2003 16:50 GMT

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Update Poker.com Inc is continuing to pursue "all legal avenues" in a bid to regain control of the domain www.poker.com.

In December, the Canada-based company claimed it had been the victim of a "form of technological piracy" after it alleged that the poker.com domain was "hijacked and re-directed without the consent or knowledge of the company".

In a new statement Poker.com Inc. (and not Poker.com as we wrote in a previous version of this article. That's the other side. Apologies for any confusion created by our own confusion) said that a recent ICANN ruling refused to acknowledge that Communication Services Inc (the current registrant of the domain) were using the URL illegally and have suggested that action was more appropriate to be commenced against ALA Corp (the previous registrant of the domain).

Actually, the arbitrator went a great deal further than that, noting that it "is difficult to see how Complainant UniNet (an affiliate of Poker.com Inc which teamed up in the ICANN arbitration) has or ever had any interest in the trademarks at issue".

Following the ruling, Judith Silver, a trademark lawyer acting on behalf of Communication Services Inc., accused Poker.com Inc and Uninet of attempting to "litigate a contract dispute with a party other than the domain registrant using the ICANN system."

Now for a quote from Malcolm Nickerson, director of Communications Services Inc. "This entire matter stems from a dispute between UniNet Inc. and Ala Corporation and has nothing whatsoever to do with Communications Services Inc. In my opinion, this complaint was an unwarranted abuse of the ICANN system".

According to Nickerson, the dispute between UniNet Inc. and Ala Corporation stems from an "allegation by UniNet Technologies that it has valid right to use the
domain name www.poker.com arising from an alleged license agreement with Ala Corporation".

Got that? You can read the ruling, CPR Case 00301, in full at CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution . ®

Hijacked? Fight over Poker.com URL

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