Domain Name Wire

National Car Rental sues over National.com typo – a domain it doesn’t even own

Car rental company demands typo of National.com, a domain it doesn’t even own.

Vanguard Trademark Holdings, which owns the National car rental brand, has filed a cybersquatting lawsuit (pdf) against the domain name Natiional.com.

The company filed a UDRP against the domain name already. It lost that case in June. On the same day it won a similar case for another typo, Nationnal.com.

Part of the reason it lost the Natiional.com case is because the panel ruled it’s OK to own a typo of a generic word.

But what I find most interesting is that the company doesn’t even own National.com. It’s owned by National Semiconductor. So Vanguard is asking a court to hand over a typo of a domain it doesn’t even own!

I also get a kick out of the convoluted way Vanguard found links to car rentals on Natiional.com, basically saying that if you go a few pages into the directory-like parked page you can find links to car rental companies, including National.

Vanguard says that Natiional.com, although protected with a whois privacy service, actually belongs to Kevin Ham’s Vertical Axis.

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Related posts:

1. National Car Rental Fails to Show Rights in National.com Typo
2. For National Car Rental, Green Means Stop Using Your Domain Name
3. Nationnal.com and Natiional.com – One is a Trademark Typo, the Other Isn’t

Tags: Policy & Law