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ARTICLE · 28 MAY 2014

Calvin Klein And Protest Sites

ENS
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Calvin Klein's complaint went like this: we have rights to the trade mark CALVIN KLEIN for these goods and we have trade mark registrations for the name.

South AfricaIntellectual Property
Rachel Sikwane
Rachel Sikwane
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'Respondent does not believe any consumer could reasonably believe the best route to finding Complainant's goods on the internet is by entering www.fuckcalvinklein.com into a web browser.'

This rather self-evident line from the domain name decision in the case of Calvin Klein Trademark Trust & Calvin Klein Inc v Alan Sleator (National Arbitration Forum) – in which the president of the panel summarised the defence that was raised to the claim that the domain name www.fuckcalvinklein.com should be cancelled or transferred to Calvin Klein – neatly sums up why the decision went against the company.  It is surprising that Calvin Klein decided to lodge an objection in the first place given that it has long been accepted that protest web sites have their place in today's world.

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