Orange is a popular color, and not just to paint one’s house.
Adopted by numerous brand, marketing and new media companies around the world, orange delivers a friendly reference to services and products.
It comes as no surprise that the Registrant of OrangeWebsite.com got hit with a UDRP.
The company is operated by Henri Vilmi of Reykjavik, Iceland and the domain was registered in 2009, according to Domaintools.
Meanwhile, Orange Brand Services Limited of London, United Kingdom claimed rights to the mark ORANGE.
They are a wholly owned subsidiary of Orange SA and part of the telecommunications conglomerate known as Orange Group. The company operates from Orange.com.
According to the Complaint, the Orange Group operates in over 160 countries, and has approximately 155,000 employees and 163 million customers worldwide.
The Respondent did not deny that the Complainant owns a trademark for the above terms, but defended the use of the domain OrangeWebsite.com thus:
“The Respondent has rights and legitimate interests in the Disputed Domain Name. The Respondent has used the Disputed Domain Name in connection with a bona fide offering of goods or services since 2009 (see paragraph 4(c)(i) of the Policy), and has been commonly known by the name OrangeWebsite since 2005 (see paragraph 4(c)(ii) of the Policy).
The Respondent has provided services to at least 7,000 customers using the OrangeWebsite name since 2005. The Respondent’s business has generated revenue of over EUR 850,000. He has spent approximately EUR 45,000 on advertising and marketing.”
A three member panel at the WIPO, consisting of panelists John Swinson, Matthew S. Harris and Diane Cabell, stated the following:
“The Complainant bears the burden of providing sufficient evidence to show that, when the Respondent registered the Disputed Domain Name, he did so with the intention of taking unfair advantage of the Complainant’s trade mark rights. The Complainant has not provided any such evidence. Instead, the Complainant’s submissions on this element relate to the content hosted by the Respondent’s customers via the Respondent’s web hosting business.”
The domain was ordered to remain with the Respondent. For the full text of this UDRP decision for OrangeWebsite.com, click here.
