Celgene takes action against alleged cybersquatter
US biotechnology company Celgene has taken legal action against the registrant of a domain name which allegedly infringes Celgene’s trademarks.
In the suit, filed at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia yesterday, May 29, Celgene claimed that cellgene.com was an example of “typosquatting” or “cybersquatting”, a process where a domain name is created with a typographical error to closely imitate a more reputable website.
The cellgene.com domain was “registered for the purpose of obtaining internet visitors when such visitors make a typographical error on their keyboard when attempting to reach Celgene.com”, the complaint said.
According to Celgene, the registrant of the domain is Hong Kong-based Portmedia Holdings, a company the American biotech company labelled as a “serial cybersquatter that makes a habit of registering domain names in bad faith”.
In the suit, Celgene claimed that Portmedia has established domain names corresponding to “at least five separate third-party trademarks”. The complaint cited Etsy Domain Administrator v Portmedia Holdings, which found a bad faith registration of a domain name corresponding to e-commerce site Etsy.
Celgene attempted to have registration of the domain transferred through the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy, but was unsuccessful, the company said.
The complaint included screenshots from the website hosted on cellgene.com, which show links for “Celgene Jobs” and “Revlimid”, Celgene’s follicular lymphoma drug (lenalidomide).
The biotech company said that the use of its “Celgene” and “Revlimid” marks on the website was unauthorised.
Celgene is alleging a violation of the Federal Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and trademark infringement. The company is seeking transfer of cellgene.com and any other domains using its marks without authorisation.
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