Time Warner and EMI, which earlier this year announced merger plans, recently won the rights to the name emiwarnermusic.com and four similar names. The names were originally registered by a company called CPIC Net, shortly after the announcement of the merger. CPIC Net tried to sell the names back to Time Warner and EMI for over $1 million. CPIC Net did not appear at the hearing.
The family of the guitarist Jimi Hendrix filed a case in May against a Florida individual, Danny Hammerton who had registered jimihendrix.com and a number of other celebrity dot.com names. The WIPO panel ruled that the name had been registered in bad faith and that the family of Hendrix, who died in 1970, was the owner of the common law and registered trade marks in his name and the proper owner of the domain name.
Hammerton had advertised the domain name for sale at $1 million. He has been quoted as saying that he holds some 2,000 domain names. He has also tried to sell PaulMcCartney.com and MickJagger.com for up to $51,000.
In the past month, Telecoms company AT&T has won the names attmexico.com and att-latinamerica.com and Yahoo! has won the name CampYahoo.com before the WIPO panel.
It is possible to take domain name disputes before the courts, but the Arbitration and Mediation Centre of WIPO has become very popular, largely due to its speed in hearing and deciding on a dispute and the limited costs involved in bringing a case before it.