The merchandising company for the National Basketball Association has lost its bid to take control of the domain name Knicks.com. In a ruling published Thursday, a United Nations-appointed arbitrator said NBA Properties failed to prove it had the rights to trademarks relating to the New York Knicks basketball team, although it handles merchandising for all the NBA's member teams.The domain name was originally registered by Adirondack Software, of Freeport, NY, but has been put on hold by registrar Network Solutions since 1996 because of the dispute over ownership. In its submission to the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation, NBA Properties said that, in 1998, Adirondack agreed to hand over the domain name, but then never did. When the company tried to contact Adirondack again in 1999, the letter was returned unclaimed. Adirondack also failed to reply to WIPO's request for information.
NBA Properties asked for the Web address to be transferred. In his ruling, arbitrator William Mathis said he was not convinced that NBA Properties had the rights to the trademarks, which are owned by Madison Square Garden LP, the owner and operator of the Knicks team. Granting a transfer "would place ownership of the domain name in an entity other than the trademark owner without consent from the trademark owner," he said.
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