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Registrar hit with second porn UDRP breach notice this year

Kevin Murphy, February 21, 2022, Domain Registrars

A Chinese registrar group has been accused by ICANN of shirking its UDRP obligations for the second time this year.

ICANN has put Hong Kong-based DomainName Highway on notice that is in breach of its contract for failing to transfer the domain 1ockheedmartin.com to defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

The domain is a straightforward case of typosquatting, with the initial L replaced with a numeral 1. At time of writing, it still resolves to a page of pornographic thumbnail links, despite being lost in a UDRP case January 4.

Under UDRP rules, registrars have 10 days to transfer a UDRP-losing domain to the trademark owner, unless a lawsuit prevents it.

The circumstances are very similar to a breach notice ICANN issued against ThreadAgent.com over a case of BMW’s brand being cybersquatted with porn last month.

Both ThreadAgent and DomainName Highway appear to be part of the XZ.com, aka Xiamen DianMedia Network Technology Co, which is based in China but has about 20 accredited registrars based in Hong Kong.

DomainName Highway has about 30,000 gTLD domains under management.