AdMixer.com : Chinese respondent beats British trademark holder in UDRP

UDRP has been denied.

A UDRP against the domain AdMixer.com involved a British Complainant and a Chinese Respondent.

The domain AdMixer.com was registered in 2000, many moons before a British company, Admixer limited, acquired a trademark for ADMIXER.

In 2014, the Complainant asserts to have acquired a Ukrainian company, thus inheriting its trademark that was first used in 2007.

According to the complaint:

“The Complainant is the owner of several registrations for the Trade Mark, including Ukrainian registration No. 120753, registered on March 25, 2010; and international registration No. 1251547, registered on April 7, 2015. Protection under the Complainant’s international trade mark registration for the Trade Mark was extended to China on February 25, 2016.”

The Chinese Respondent denied any claims of using the domain AdMixer.com in bad faith, and stated the following:

“(1) The Complainant’s main business is in Ukraine, the Complainant and its Trade Mark are not well-known worldwide, and the Complainant does not possess any relevant rights in the Trade Mark in China;

(2) The Respondent has rights and legitimate interests in respect of the disputed domain name; and

(3) The disputed domain name was not registered and has not been used in bad faith.”

Sebastian M.W. Hughes, sole panelist at the WIPO, concluded that there was no bad faith in the use of this domain by the Respondent:

“It is also noteworthy that protection under the Complainant’s international registration for the Trade Mark was only recently extended to China on February 25, 2016. Whilst this date pre-dates the Respondent’s deemed date of registration of the disputed domain name of as early as September 2, 2015 but no later than October 27, 2016 (see WIPO Overview 2.0, paragraph 3.7 – “the transfer of a domain name to a third party does amount to a new registration”), absent any evidence of some particular renown of the Trade Mark at that time, the Panel considers that it is bound to accept the Respondent’s denial of knowledge of the Complainant and of the Trade Mark at the relevant times at face value.”

The domain AdMixer.com was also deemed “generic” by the nature of its keywords, for “ad(vertising)” and “mixer.” The panelist denied the Complainant’s request to transfer the domain.

View the full text of this UDRP.

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