Swatch is a famous Swiss watchmaker; they are the Complainant in the UDRP against the domain Swatch.click.
The Swatch Swiss watch business was established in 1983; the Complainant is the owner of the SWATCH trademark which it has been using for its products and services since 1983. The Complainant sells its products worldwide.
According to the UDRP:
“SWATCH is protected as trademark and has been registered on a world-wide scale, for example in Switzerland with the following trademark registrations: SWATCH (word) class 14, 2P-314759 registration on March 29, 1982.
Furthermore, the Complainant’s company name “Swatch” is registered in the Commercial Register of the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. The Complainant has also registered many domain names comprising the SWATCH trademark including <swatch.com> and many country code Top-Level Domains (“ccTLDs”) such as <swatch.ch>, <swatch.fr>, <swatch.de> or <swatch.us> as well as some containing new generic Top‑Level Domain (“gTLD”) extensions such as <swatch.watch>, <swatch.store> or <swatch.swiss>.”
Respondent is Uli Kumli, Social-Media. Club of Utzenstorf, Switzerland, who first communicated to the Swiss company that he’d be willing to transfer the disputed domain name for a payment of CHF 20,000.
Swatch actually offered CHF 200 for the domain name.
Being cheeky in his response, the Respondent then claimed that Swatch.click was registered for an upcoming project, standing for “START WATCH & CLICK”.
Now, that’s creative.
On a separate note, the Respondent also owns fifa.management, another famous trademark violation.
Peter Wild, sole panelist at the WIPO, saw through the crafty attempts by the Respondent, and ordered the domain Swatch.click to be transferred to the Complainant.
“The fact that the Respondent requested CHF 20,000 for transfer of the disputed domain name is a further, strong indication of bad faith. It shows that the Respondent registered or acquired the disputed domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring it for an amount which by far exceeds the out of pocket costs of the Respondent.”
For the full text of the UDRP, click here.
