LAS VEGAS — An arbitrator has sided with XVideos.com again in a cybersquatting case. This time it is over the domain name XVideos.nu.
The arbitrator, finding the site "confusingly similar" to adult tube site brand XVideos.com, ordered it transferred to its parent company WGCZ S.R.O. The ruling was announced today.
XVideos.nu's registered domain holder, Andrey Kuzmenko of Ukraine, has operated similar "XVideos" tube sites and has lost two recent UDRP cases including the XVideosDaily.com and XVideosToday.net domains.
Kuzmenko did not formally respond to the complaint at WIPO; however he emailed the arbitrator adjudicating the case, saying that when he registered the site "XVideos" it was not already trademarked.
A whois check shows the XVideos.nu site was registered in 2010 and archives show that it was active through the years as an adult tube site through Friday. The site now doesn't resolve.
WGCZ operates scores of other adult tube sites, including XNXX.com, and is based in Czechoslovakia and has U.S. operations in Las Vegas. WGCZ has held the a U.S. trademark on its XVideos brand since 2012 and its XNXX brand since 2013.
WGCZ recently won cases at WIPO over the sites XVideosDaily.com ,XVideosToday.net, New-XVideos.com, XNXXNow.com, New-XNXX.com, X-Videos.com, HD-XVideos and HQXNXX.com — all highly trafficked tube sites that offered adult fare.
WGCZ has been represented in the cases by Randazza Legal Group.
Marc Randazza, adult industry attorney and name partner of the firm, told XBIZ that the XVideos.nu site likely benefitted from massive traffic.
".nu is the country code TLD for the Island of Niue," Randazza said. "One might wonder why anyone would care about one of the most remote places in the world, with a population dwarfed by an average office building in a major city.
"But, '.nu' is not just for Niue," he said. "The Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium markets recognize 'nu' as a word meaning 'now' (in Swedish, Danish, and Dutch). That makes this one particularly important."
"It is important for any company with a global mark protection strategy to think internationally, and to think in languages other than English."
Randazza, who last year earned an advanced degree in intellectual property law from the University of Turin, Italy, noted "that European degree and my time studying in Europe has led to a greater vision for me of the international playing field for intellectual property protection.
"When you are protecting a European client in a European arbitration, it makes sense to have a European legal education coupled with my American foundation," he said.