A National Arbitration Forum arbitrator rules in favor of the rock band regarding the Internet domain name pearljams.com.

The National Arbitration Forum today announced that a ruling has been issued in favor of Seattle based alternative rock band, Pearl Jam, regarding the rights to pearljams.com, an internet domain name almost identical to the band's official website address, which directed users to unrelated commercial sites.

The rock group Pearl Jam, A General Partnership, represented by Leslie C. Ruiter of Stokes Lawrence, P.S., filed a complaint electronically with the National Arbitration Forum on November 8, 2005, asserting legal rights to the domain name pearljams.com. The address was registered with Domain Systems, Inc. by the Respondent, Vertical Axis, Inc. c/o Domain Administrator, on August 25, 2005.

The panel found that the domain was being used without permission to refer Internet users to a variety of commercial web sites unrelated to Pearl Jam, including links to "Sponsored Results for Eddie Vedder," "Eddie Vedder at Amazon.com, Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder-$9.99 and Eddie Vedder on Yahoo!Music".

Ruling in Pearl Jam's favor, National Arbitration Forum arbitrator
Bruce E. Meyerson concluded that pearljams.com was "confusingly similar" to the PEARL JAM trademark, which was registered on August 15, 1995 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Meyerson also found that Vertical Axis, Inc. did not have legitimate rights to, or interest in, the disputed Web address, and was using the address in bad faith for its own commercial gain. Vertical Axis, Inc. did not submit a response in the case.