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Three-way legal fight over .eco breaks out

Kevin Murphy, April 9, 2012, 13:19:03 (UTC), Domain Registries

Planet.eco, an emergent .eco gTLD applicant with a trademark on “.eco” is suing two rival applicants for trademark infringement and cybersquatting in a California court.
The company sued DotEco (affiliated with Minds + Machines and Top Level Domain Holdings), along with CEO Fred Krueger, and Canada-based Big Room on March 2.
It’s looking for millions of dollars of damages and an injunction preventing both rival applicants from applying for .eco.
In late March, DotEco filed a counter-suit, alleging that Planet.eco’s .eco trademark was fraudulently obtained and that the company is trying to illegally stifle competition for the .eco gTLD.
That’s the short version. It’s a complex story with a great deal of history and more than a little bogus behavior.
DomainIncite PRO subscribers can read the full DI analysis, along with more PDFs than you could ever possibly need, here.
(Thanks to reader Tom Gilles for the tip)

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Comments (7)

  1. Nic says:

    “DomainIncite PRO subscribers”??
    I must have missed that announcement.
    Great idea. Sincerely, best of luck with it.

  2. Do you have a link for us non-subscribers to the info regarding the lawsuit?

  3. Puranjay says:

    Sit tight, folks. As the April 30 deadline approaches, these gTLD fights will get a lot ugly.
    I’m pretty sure ICANN is going to come out of this gTLD debacle with a lot of regret (and a lot of spare change).

  4. Philip Corwin says:

    From the perspective of the legal community, new gTLDs are a gift that will keep on giving — for years in some cases.

  5. GoogleGuy says:

    ROLF! The winner gets the .ECO gtld so that they can then move on and lose their .shirt.
    THey think will actually want to register a .eco extension? I’d rather have .coop! How foolish.
    Whoo Hoo!
    Suckers!

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