Ah, the joys of politics. In modern times, like never before, it’s not good enough to just explain why you’re a better candidate. Nope. Nowadays it’s an era of far left- or right- “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” And with that, the name-calling, insults and belittling fly like an eagle across a grammar school playground. I mean, in just the past few years alone, we’ve all had to deal with the likes of hand size, “Let’s go Brandon,” and, most recently, “Meatball Ron.”
One of the loudest battle cries for the far-right at the moment is being “woke.” (Don’t get me wrong – the left have their own battle cries, too. But those don’t have anything to do with the topic of Southwest vs. SouthWoke.) It doesn’t matter that the term “woke” started in the 1930s from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” Or that by the 2010s it had a broader awareness and encompassed social inequalities (i.e. “The most woke person who ever walked this earth was Jesus.”). By 2020 the political right embraced the term and began using it as an insult. The political left doesn’t really care; no one is “owning the libs” by saying they and their ideas are “woke;” compared to the right, I’m betting the left is proud of what they do to help others. But that’s where we are in politics right now; name-calling.
Meanwhile, what appears to be a satire website called SouthWoke dot com was launched a month or two ago. Using the concept of “woke” as a bad thing, the site makes fun of the airline’s policies about DEI, LGBTQI+, BLM, ESG, etc.
PC: SouthWoke dot com
Large companies are fiercely protective of their brands, so it’s no surprise that Southwest lodged a cybersquatting complaint against the creator(s) of SouthWoke dot com (From NOLO.com: “Cybersquatting is registering, selling or using a domain name with the intent of profiting from the goodwill of someone else’s trademark. It generally refers to the practice of buying up domain names that use the names of existing businesses with the intent to sell the names for a profit to those businesses.” Here’s a good example of cybersquatting).
Southwest lodged a complaint with ADR Forum (a provider of arbitration, mediation and online dispute resolution), saying that:
Complainant, Southwest Airlines Co. operates one of the largest airlines in the United States. Complainant asserts rights in the SOUTHWEST mark based upon registration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) (e.g., Reg. No. 1,230,381, registered March 8, 1983). Respondent’s <southwoke.com> is confusingly similar to Complainant’s SOUTHWEST mark because it includes the first “south” portion, changes three letters of the word “west” to “woke” and adds the generic top-level domain (“gTLD”) “.com”.
Respondent does not have rights or legitimate interests in the <southwoke.com> domain name. Respondent is not licensed or authorized to use Complainant’s SOUTHWEST mark and is not commonly known by the Domain Name. Respondent also does not use the Domain Name for any bona fide offering of goods or services. Rather, Respondent, through the use of Complainant’s marks, images of Complainant’s employees and trade indicia, seeks to pass itself off as Complainant.
Respondent registered and uses the <southwoke.com> domain name in bad faith. Respondent disrupts Complainant’s business by operating a competing website. Respondent creates a likelihood of confusion by attempting to pass off as Complainant. Respondent registered the Domain Name using false WHOIS information. Respondent had actual or constructive knowledge of Complainant’s rights in the SOUTHWEST mark.
Complainant requests that the Domain Name be transferred from Respondent to Complainant.
It’s not clear who runs SouthWoke, by the way. The domain is registered through FlokiNET Ltd., an Icelandic company established in 2012. It’s a hosting business that says it’s “a safe harbor for freedom of speech, free press and whistleblower projects.”
Anyway, Southwest lodged the complaint on April 4th, not long after the errant website went live (or was noticed). On May 10th, the decision was made that:
In light of the Panel’s dispositive finding on the issue of rights or legitimate interests, the Panel declines to address the question of registration and use in bad faith.
Southwest lost the complaint and SouthWoke gets to keep its website.
Click here to read ADR Forum’s decision.
Granted, I could see how Southwest would want the satire site to be taken down; they’re being made fun of. But it’s not as if the site was called SOUTHWEST.ORG, SOUTHWEST.US or anything like that – no one is going to go to SouthWoke dot com with the goal of making flight reservations.
Frankly, I think it was a silly complaint.
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