Newsletter | May 2014, Issue 2
	Technology, Media & Telecommunications
	Defense of Twitter in domain name litigation
	On February 20, 2014, the Seoul Central District Court dismissed a complaint filed against Twitter Inc. (“Twitter”) by a plaintiff who requested the Court to confirm the non-existence of a domain name cancellation claim (i.e., claims to cancel the registration of a domain name) for the domain name “www.twitter.co.kr.”
	The plaintiff had argued that Twitter could not make a domain name cancellation claim for “www.twitter.co.kr,” because he registered this domain name on April 29, 2008 before Twitter registered the “Twitter” service mark in Korea and he was using the domain name to operate a travel website.
	However, the Court held that the plaintiff had an improper motive for registering “www.twitter.co.kr,” because (i) Twitter was widely known worldwide before plaintiff registered the domain name; (ii) plaintiff did not actually use the website connected to the domain name to operate a travel website and did not appear to have taken any measures in preparation for operating such a website; (iii) plaintiff had 3,180 domain names registered with his address; and (iv) plaintiff was previously issued decisions by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to transfer domain names for which he did not have any legitimate rights to use.
	Kim & Chang successfully obtained a dismissal of the complaint by conducting extensive fact finding and analysis to persuade the Court that the plaintiff had an improper motive for registering the domain name.
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