IDENTITY THIEF LOSES OUT

11 September 2009

Top poker player wins action against name hijacker
 

Yevgen Kudashov thought he was on to a good thing when he started using the unregistered name of famous internet and live poker ace Gus Hansen for his own profit. The name hijacker used "The Great Dane's" name, likeness and celebrity on his Web site and email address, going to great lengths to deceive the public into believing that he was Hansen.

But although Hansen did not have a registered trademark on his name at the time of the filing, he was able to reclaim his identity.

Hansen achieved this by hiring Safenames Limited, a company specialising in domain dispute services, which proved that the Kudashov registered GusHansen.com in bad faith and that his use of the domain infringed on Hansen's common law mark and personal name.

Prudence Malinki, head counsel at Safenames, said: "We are very pleased that Safenames was able to win this dispute for Mr. Hansen.

"I believe that that this ruling will pave the way for other famous individuals and celebrities to recover domain names registered to third parties who are profiting from registering domains that contain their famous personal names." 

Online Casino News Courtesy of Infopowa

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