Wall Street Folly

Now it’s really official.  Goldmansex.com is offline.  And as for the website owner’s alternate name choice of Goldmensex.com?  If you enter that url, you’re pointed another name, with no Goldman to be found in the title.  The new moniker: Cityoflove.com.  We’re guessing that Goldman protested the alternate name as well, with the website giving in.  In any event, Goldman must be relieved.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Goldman Sachs, GoldmanSex.com

Last night we tripped over the then very fresh news that Goldmansex.com had lost its case against Goldman Sachs, who had filed suit against them over their domain name.   We also noted that Goldmansex.com had probably chosen their new name: Goldmensex.com, with that domain already pointing at their soon-to-be zapped one.  Given the similarity, we suspect that we’ll be hearing about a new suit in the not too distant future.  For grins we looked to see what others might be available.  And the possibilities are of course, literally endless.  If Goldman were smart (this also applies to any major company), they’d just play the name game and grab a bunch of potentially troublesome combinations including the .net, .org, etc. varieties.  But even though it only costs a few shekels and takes a few minutes, that would be too obvious.

We went to our website registrar, Godaddy.com, where they have a convenient little toy that even suggests alternate domains for you if the one you want is taken.  It’s kind of fun to see what combinations they come up with.  We’ll leave it to you to play with.   But we have a suggestion for Goldman. They might want to consider taking these out of circulation: GoldmanSucksCox.com and GoldmanSuxCox.com both of which at the time of this post appear to still be available.  *chuckle*.

Tags: Goldman Sachs, GoldmanSex.com

We didn’t see any news services or blogs out with this yet, so let us be the first to break the sad news: We were checking out the Goldmansex.com site just to see if it was still there, as we’ve done from time to time since Goldman Sachs filed suit, and much to our surprise, they note on the front of their site that they’ve lost their case against the company per a decision dated 8/31/06. They say their likely new name choice will be: Goldmensex.com (which already points to their site).  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! We hope they get away with it but wonder if Goldman will just go after them again.   The note said:

Money rules: NAF decides in favour of Goldman Sachs
A NAF arbitration initiated by Goldman Sachs decided Goldmansex has to give up its domain name. The verdict is unexpected and completely out of line with the scope of a NAF arbitration. The fact is that this National Arbitration Forum completely ignored their own regulations: besides other burdens the complainant has to proof the respondent has no rights in the domain name. Goldmansex holds a trademark in this name and the services it provides….

Many friendly lawyers already warned us for this: "A company like Goldman Sachs is so powerful they simply make the decision for the judge". Although Goldmansex is in a complete different line of business and it holds a trademark in the name, that does not matter. Money rules and the NAF does not care about their own regulations….

We now have to think about a new domain name, probably Goldmensex.com.

In the decision reached today by the National Arbitration Forum:

The Panel has found above that Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in the <goldmansex.com> domain name pursuant to Policy ¶ 4(a)(ii).  The Complainant has alleged and the Panel so finds, that Respondent is intentionally attempting to attract, for commercial gain, Internet users searching for Complainant’s financial services thereby directing such inquiries to Respondent’s website filled with adult-oriented content.  The Panel finds that Respondent is taking advantage of the confusing similarity between the <goldmansex.com> domain name and the GOLDMAN SACHS mark in order to profit from the goodwill associated with Complainant’s mark and that such conduct constitutes bad faith registration and use pursuant to Policy ¶ 4(b)(iv).  See Google Inc. v. Bassano, FA 232958 (Nat. Arb. Forum Mar. 8, 2004) (holding that the respondent’s use of the <googlesex.info> domain name to intentionally attract Internet users to a pornographic website constituted bad faith registration and use under Policy ¶ 4(b)(iv)); see also Youtv, Inc. v. Alemdar, FA 94243 (Nat. Arb. Forum Apr. 25, 2000) (finding bad faith where the respondent attracted users to his website for commercial gain and linked his website to pornographic websites).

The full decision is below:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Goldman Sachs, GoldmanSex.com

You’re gonna be a stranger in a strange city.  You want some companionship while you’re there. So what does the smart, efficient and adventurous person do to fill that hole in their evening schedule?  They put an ad on Craigslist to line up a little sumthin sumthin.

That’s what this Chicago investment banker coming to NYC next week on business is doing.  Of course, another idea would be for him to check out the action ahead of time on goldmansex.com, which much to Goldman’s chagrin, at least for now, is still up and running.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Craigslistspotting, Goldman Sachs, GoldmanSex.com

Goldman Sachs isn’t amused by an adult site in the Netherlands called "Goldmansex.com" and wants them stripped of the name.  They’ve filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) complaining that the sex related site would cause confusion — it contains objectionable links and "adult" material.  Goldman had no comment about the suit.  Rob Muller, who owns the Goldmansex.com site has hired a lawyer and is gonna fight.  "Would their clients really think this is some sort of new product line?" he said.

We want to know what took Goldman so long to file the suit.  We looked up the domain and it seems that the site’s been registered since March 6, 2000.

This isn’t the first time a banking firm has had to fight for it’s name.  In early June Morgan Stanley won a cat fight to get the name mymorganstanleyplatinum.com removed.  The suit received wide publicity because the listed owner of the site was….a cat.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Goldman Sachs, GoldmanSex.com