Electricity Supply Board Vs. Lislyn Retail Limited & Northern Retail Limited - August - December 2003

On August 26, 2003 a complaint was made by Electricity Supply Board to the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center in relation to the trademark of the domain name "shopelectric.ie" which is registered with the IE Domain Registry Limited by Lislyn Retail Limited and Northern Retail Limited. As in the case file Electricity Supply Board will be referred to as the Complainant and Lislyn Retail Limited and Northern Retail Limited will be referred to as the Respondent. There is no connection between the two.

The Respondent was given a deadline of October 30 2003 to respond and did so on that date. On November 10, Edmund Fry was appointed as the sole panelist for this case. The Complainant here stated that it was primarily operating in Republic of Ireland but also internationally. ESB Retail is a branch of the Complainant that sells electrical appliances through retail throughout the Republic of Ireland and according to the Complainant it is the largest electrical retailer in Ireland with 81 shops nationwide. This complaint is being filed as the Complainant operates under the "shopelectric" brand name since 1968. Also stating it has built up a body of goodwill with the people of Ireland over this period of time.

The Complainant registered "SHOPELECTRIC" as a trademark in the Republic of Ireland on October 21, 1997. By January of the same year the Respondent had a network of 29 High Street "Shop Electric" stores, all located in Northern Ireland. During the financial year April 2001 to March 2002, it's turnover was in the region of £48.9m.

Now according to the Complainant the "shopelectric.ie" domain name automatically connects you to the "www.pluggedin.co.uk" website. The online store of Northern Retail Limited. It was clear that the domain "shopelectric.ie" was not in use.

The Complainant believes that Respondents have no physical presence within the Republic of Ireland and that they have never used, nor have any intention to use this domain. The Complainant also feels that this site domain will attract Irish users to the site and cause confusion with the Complainants trademark.

The Respondent feels that the two trademarks are not similar, as the Respondent has the trademark "shopelectric.ie" and the Complainant has registered "SHOPELECTRIC" which is a stylized font. The Respondent also feels that the Complainant has not proved that they have built up a substantial amount of good faith with their customer base.

In order for a transfer of the domain name to occur three qualifications must be met by the panel. The panel must first decide as to whether or not the domain name is identical or misleadingly similar to a Protected Identifier in which the Complainant has rights. Here the panel decided that the domain name is misleadingly similar and the Respondents claim that the Complainant has a stylized font has been refuted as "shopelectric" and "SHOPELECTRIC" are built of the same characters and this is a specified term and not a generic term.

Secondly, does the Registrant have any rights in law or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name. The Respondents do not admit any use of the site "shopelectric.ie" itself and have stated that they have no way in selling to customers in Ireland as of yet, meaning that they may plan to in the future. However the panel can only take into account anything which has happened before the complaint was made. Therefore this meaning of good faith to provide this service in the future is invalid. However in regards to the Respondents long standing use and the existence of trademarks in Northern Ireland.

Finally, was the domain name registered or used in bad faith. As stated above it is clear that the Respondents have legitimate interests in the domain there was no need to check whether the domain was registered in bad faith.

Once all this was taken into consideration and it was clear that one of the three qualifying factors in making a complaint had failed, it was concluded that the complaint had failed and the Respondent was able to keep hold of their domain.

I myself do agree with this decision as I feel it is clearly stated above. The Respondent had all the relevant trademarks in place within Northern Ireland, and by having registered this domain in the Republic of Ireland they are clearly taking precautions for future business ideas and they have been using the trademarked for over 30 years to add to their defense. Even though it was not included in the report, I feel that it was also clear that the domain was not registered in bad faith as the Respondent had been operating under this trademark for 30 years.

Here is a link to the WIPO's decision on the case http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/case.jsp

Movie Review - Poltergeist (2015)

The movie which I will be reviewing is the remake of the popular paranormal thriller, Poltergeist (2015). I should preface this review by stating that I have not actually seen the original so I cannot comment on similarities.

I was pleasantly surprised when I started the movie to see Sam Rockwell taking up the leading male role alongside Rosemarie DeWitt as the leading female. I would begin to realize as the movie progressed that the child actors Kyle Catlett and Kennedi Clements would be the main focus in the movie as Kennedi's character, Madison  would be targeted and enticed by the paranormal entities while Kyle's character Griffin would be harassed. The final member of the family was the rebellious teenage daughter Kendra, played by Saxon Sharbino.

The setting is a newly developed suburban area in an unnamed state in America. It is very quickly revealed to us that Sam's character Eric is now unemployed and Rosemarie's character Amy is also out of work as she is focusing on writing a book. We are reminded of the fact that both parents are unemployed quite a bit in the first half of the movie, although in truth it doesn't really add to the story in a direct way like I imagined it would as it had been mentioned so much. The movie very quickly presents the idea of the paranormal threat when we see Madison talking to "nobody" in her new bedroom as soon as she enters it. The pace from here is quite slow, as we are shown the struggles of a family in a financial crisis and a bit more development into the characters themselves. We learn that Griffin is frightened very easily since a traumatic experience in his childhood which allows his parents to take his words of caution with no real urgency and that Madison is continuing her solicitations with the spirits.

It is not until Eric and Amy go out for dinner, leaving Kendra to babysit Griffin and Madison do we see the real extent of this "haunting". Various frightening occurrences take place within the house much to the horror of the three kids at this time. Meanwhile Eric and Amy are told that their house had been built on an old cemetery which had supposedly been moved. Shortly after this, Madison is "taken" by the spirits into their world.

Unsure of how to handle this Amy goes to a paranormal research center to recruit their help in saving Madison. They agree and set up various pieces of equipment to detect the entities. We soon learn that the closet in Madison's room is a portal and someone must go inside to save her, all the while fending off a horde of angry spirits.

My final thoughts on this movie are as follows:
It is a good "Netflix" movie, if you've nothing to watch and are in the mood for a little fun then this is a good choice. The story is relatively simple as are the characters. The acting is nothing to write home about, as I felt Rockwell was sub par and the child acting was, like a lot of child acting, just mediocre and at times frustrating. It did feel that the movie dragged at times and the heavy use of CGI really took away from the sense of horror and threat. It is as I said still quite enjoyable and a nice way to kill an hour and a half of your time with some nice little frights.

I would give this movie an average 6 out of 10.

About me and piracy views

i am currently studying Software Development in the Cork Institute of Technology and I am in first year. I chose this course due to having a high level of interest in the topic itself and the general working of computers and the employment opportunities that come with having a degree in this field. I've also done a year of computer science in University College of Cork through Arts. There is when I realised how much I enjoy working on computers and that it was what I wanted to focus my studies on and make my career in. I'm very happy in CIT with the facilities, staff and the students with whom I share this course with. Hopefully I can also used this course to travel abroad whether it be for work placement or once I'm finished my degree, preferably to somewhere in Asia or the United States. I'm really looking forward to what this course offers in the future as I'm really enjoying what it offers at this moment in time. I also can't wait to learn more about computers and there inner workings and how I can also include my knowledge in my daily life as well as my professional life.

My views on privacy are what I would imagine to be the normal views on this topic. It does concern me that what I'm doing online can be seen and is being seen, whether that be by the owner of the website, Internet service providers or nearly any company or agency if they chose to. Even in incognito mode at the very least your ISP will see your traffic as they direct you to the sites that you are using. Knowing all of this I've honestly begun to turn a blind eye to privacy on the Internet as I understand it's just not really a thing that you can have. It also has a lot to do with my belief that I'm not looking into or browsing anything that I feel I would care if some random employee at a company sees me doing as I'm sure they've seen it a thousand times and worse. I also have no real problem with companies taking my data for analytics or things like this as it does not provide me with any inconvenience and I understand that companies need this data to improve their sites.

It's clearly visible in your everyday life as the ads which you're being shown online are typically catered for you based on your browsing history and the likes. The concept of some employee at an agency or company seeing me look at some random pictures on Imgur all day long. Unfortunately I'm not interesting enough to worry about someone seeing my browsing habits as I don't look at anything which could be considered illegal by any stretch, nor do I spend anytime on the dark net. Maybe these views are the norm and just an understanding that online privacy is not really a thing. Then again I do understand that even though someone may not being doing any wrong online they may not want a person to know what they're doing in their daily life. This is a bit about myself and my views on privacy. 

Serious!

Mission Impossible is a good franchise.