June 15, 2010 at 18:11Yahoo took over Flicker.com
After a year of litigation with AshantiPLC, a dominant firm, Yahoo still got the flicker.com domain name . As you know, the name of the Flickr web-based photo service was distorted at the time precisely because the flicker.com domain was busy.
After buying a photo service, Yahoo began to sue the owners of Flicker.com, hoping to bring down the price before buying, or even select the domain “for free”.
AshantiPLC is owned by an Israeli-born investor, Sahara Sarid, who has been in the business for eight years. The company bought the domain at an eBay auction for $ 55,000 in July 2006, after which it made money on traffic and repeatedly rejected offers to sell the domain, including for $ 700,000. The site advertised photographic equipment manufacturers.
The lawsuit against AshantiPLC was filed in July 2009 ( PDF ). The main argument for the defense was that the Flicker.com domain was registered back in 1998, while the Flickr service was launched in 2004, so any legal claims against domain owners in a “name capture” are baseless. In addition, the word “flicker” is common, so trademark infringement is out of the question (defense position, PDF ). Apparently, Yahoo had no chance in court.
After a year of proceedings, the parties agreed and entered into an agreement, the details of which were not disclosed.
After buying a photo service, Yahoo began to sue the owners of Flicker.com, hoping to bring down the price before buying, or even select the domain “for free”.
AshantiPLC is owned by an Israeli-born investor, Sahara Sarid, who has been in the business for eight years. The company bought the domain at an eBay auction for $ 55,000 in July 2006, after which it made money on traffic and repeatedly rejected offers to sell the domain, including for $ 700,000. The site advertised photographic equipment manufacturers.
The lawsuit against AshantiPLC was filed in July 2009 ( PDF ). The main argument for the defense was that the Flicker.com domain was registered back in 1998, while the Flickr service was launched in 2004, so any legal claims against domain owners in a “name capture” are baseless. In addition, the word “flicker” is common, so trademark infringement is out of the question (defense position, PDF ). Apparently, Yahoo had no chance in court.
After a year of proceedings, the parties agreed and entered into an agreement, the details of which were not disclosed.