Loud court trial where the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) demanded a payment of $30,000,000 from the largest domain registrar GoDaddy came to the end. The essence of claims consisted in the fact that there were registered a lot of domains containing the words Oscar and Academy Awards in names, which are the Academy trademarks, through GoGaddy. Speaking formally, the responsibility of registrar doesn’t include checking whether a registrant has a right to use these or that words in its domain: a company is obliged to notify a registrant that use of names which do not belong to it can lead to unpleasant legal consequences. However many domains like 2011Oscars.com, betacademyawards.com or oscarcomedy.com were registered through GoDaddy, and then parked in the framework of the appropriate program of the company. Thus, a part of the income from advertizing shown on web pages of these domains went to GoDaddy’s pocket. On this basis, Academy lawyers accused the registrar of unfair actions and demanded large compensation.
Process lasted for 5 years and came to the end very unexpectedly, The Domains reports. Recognizing a validity of Academy claim on the domains containing the names Oscar and Academy Awards, the court, nevertheless, dismissed the claim. U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. emphasized that the advertisements mentioning Oscar and Academy Awards appeared on controversial pages without any GoDaddy’s participation and were immediately (sometimes in several minutes) removed by the registrar after receiving claims from owners. It doesn't allow speaking about bad faith from GoDaddy. The pages using the words Oscar and Academy Awards in names, but being absolutely empty can't cause damage to the reputation or to financial interests of Academy.
