188 – Not a lucky number.
If you own a short numeric domain that begins with “188” you might be in trouble.
In a UDRP at the WIPO, Cube Limited of Isle of Man, United Kingdom set claim to a group of domain names that began with the number “188”.
These domains are:
- 188201.com
- 188202.com
- 188203.com
- 188204.com
- 188205.com
- 188206.com
- 188207.com
- 188209.com
What appears to be an “innocent” group of numeric domains, is an alleged violation of the Complainant’s marks, that provides betting products and services through its website 188bet.com under its 188 trademarks.
According to the UDRP:
“The Complainant owns the trademark registrations over the mark 188 in the European Union and the marks 188BET and 188BET & device in the European Union, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Hong Kong, China.”
Although there is no “bet” part in these domains, they display or displayed ads related to casinos, roulette and various betting. That most likely triggered both the UDRP filing, and the decision in this case.
The Respondent did not respond.
Dr. Hong Xue, sole panelist, ordered the domains to be transferred to the Complainant. For the full text of the UDRP decision, click here.
Most people need not worry about their 188 domains. In this case, it appears he was forwarding the domain to the complainant’s site or spoofing it. He’s now using a different domain, http://1881919.com/
That’s why the panel found they were registered in bad faith.
Andrew – The panel states that the “188” prefix matches the trademark, adding a suffix, per:
“all eight disputed domain names follow the pattern of “188 + 20(X)”. Given that 188 is the Complainant’s registered trademark and “20(X)” are non-distinctive numerical characters, the Panel finds that the disputed domain names that embrace the Complainant’s registered trademark 188 in its entirety and put it at the front of the whole character sets are confusingly similar to the Complainant’s trademark.”
Cube Limited has filed at least 4 more UDRP cases for domains – several at a time – involving the “188” prefix. It is safe to assume they will continue to file for more domains that begin with “188”.
UDRP – the most disgusting criminal legal process yet to be developed. Where is the bad faith that needs to be proven? Along with the other three elements? Domain owners have to realize that domains will be hijacked and until the criminals are thrown out, you have to factor it in as a cost of doing business. Store owners have thieves – domain owners have thieves in the form of UDRP.