Candy Crush Saga – a popular game.
In what appears to be a first of its kind, a sole panelist at the WIPO found that the registrant of several “Candy Crush Saga” domains made a bona fide use of them, by providing cheats for the game!
King.com Limited of St. Julians, Malta filed the UDRP against the Respondent, for several domains that contain names, brands and trademarks of very popular games.
In particular, the following domain names were included in the UDRP:
- candycrush-cheats.com
- candycrushrespuestas.info
- candycrushrespuestas.net
- candycrushrespuestas.org
- candycrushtrucos.com
- candycrushtrucos.net
- candycrushworld.com
- farmheroescheats.com
- papapear-cheats.com
- petrescue-cheats.com
Looks like a nice assortment of domains matching games from which King.com makes billions of dollars in profit annually; therefore, they had to step in and protect their intellectual property.
The Respondent took an interesting approach to their response, splitting the list to domains they consented to transfer, and others that provided cheat guides for the games in question.
Apparently, the second group is the real money maker in this case, as the Respondent incorporated numerous PPC ads alongside rudimentary level guides on how to “cheat” your way through the game:
“Furthermore, the Respondent is providing a legitimate service, being a guide or walkthrough to the Complainant’s games, such as Candy Crush Saga. It is exceedingly difficult to provide this service without incorporating the name of the game. The Respondent has spent extensive sums on this service, for example employing two rounds of 10 people and spending over USD 100,000 to create its 2,800 page online guidebook for Candy Crush Saga. The fact that the Respondent receives income by means of advertisements does not change the fact that its activities are bona fide.”
The sole panelist, Nicholas Smith, took a lengthy look into these claims, and while he could not see any proof that the Respondent actually spent six figures to generate its very basic content, he identified it as “original work” and proceeded with calling the use “bona fide.”
Essentially, what that meant is that the panelist was swayed by content available on the Internet – just search for “Candy Crush Saga cheats” – and gave the Respondent a free pass for those domains that are most popular in traffic. That list includes candycrush-cheats.com, papapear-cheats.com, farmheroescheats.com, and petrescue-cheats.com.
We’re sure that King.com felt crushed for a change. 😀
For the full text of the case on these domains, click here.
