We have been tracking the battle between the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a few years now. It was looking like Go Daddy was going to lose a case that could set a precedent for other ip holders. The Hollywood Reporter published an article tonight in which they deemed it a “surprising court loss” for the Academy.
This battle has been going on for five years.
From the article:
The litigous group behind the Academy Awards suffers a surprising court loss.
In a cybersquatting case that lasted more than five years, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has suffered a landmark loss to GoDaddy with a judge on Thursday ruling in the domain registrar giant’s favor.
The Academy had hoped to win as much as $30 million and looked to be the heavy favorite given earlier rulings in the case, but will be walking away with nothing because U.S. District Court Judge Andre Birotte Jr. decides there’s a lack of proof that GoDaddy had a bad faith intent to traffic in trademarks like the “Academy Awards” and “Oscars.”
The lawsuit filed in 2010 targeted GoDaddy for allowing customers to buy domains like 2011Oscars.com or betacademyawards.com, “park” that page and collect a portion of revenue from GoDaddy’s advertising partners on a pay-per-click basis.
Read the full article on HollywoodReporter.com
