Forbes Wins Forbes.RU And $300,000 In Damages In Landmark Ruling

Posted on January 19th, 2010 by admin in Domain News | No Comments »

The Russian edition of Forbes magazine has won the use of the domain name Forbes.ru and a record $300,000 in damages in a landmark court ruling, the magazine announced on Friday.

The domain name was registered by Landmark VIP Services (landmarkvip.ru) in 2002. Landmark used the name to advertise their own travel packages via a simple website setup on the domain name.

More recently the company added a short biography and portrait of David James Forbes, a 19th-century Scottish naturalist and explorer in an attempt to rebuff any claims that they had registered the domain name with the intention of profiting from the Forbes magazine brand.

The Moscow Arbitration Court awarded Forbes $300,000 in damages – a ruling which represents a massive step up from previous rulings by the same court. In 1999, camera giant Eastman Kodak sued a Russian firm for using Kodak.ru in the first high-profile case of this kind and won 2,600 rubles – about $100 at the time – in compensation after a two-year legal battle.

The Forbes.ru ruling will be good news for other companies looking to claim their domain names in the Russian name space (such as BurgerKing who are looking to get BurgerKing.ru before they launch their brand in Russia) and will serve as a deterrent and a warning to cybersquatters looking to profit from established brand names in the future.

Forbes Russia launched its online version at ForbesRussia.ru in November and will be looking forward to using Forbes.ru as it’s domain name in the future. The domain forbes.ru still sports the website setup by Landmark VIP Services at the time of writing this post.

“We fought for a long time for the legal right to use the domain name Forbes.ru,” said Grigory Punanov, chief editor of ForbesRussia.ru, in a statement. “I hope the ruling will enter legal force and that our site will soon be available at that address.”