Trademark domains can cause a lot of headaches to even the most seasoned domainers!
According to their web site, the National Arbitration Forum “is a world leader in dispute resolution.” Particularly:
“The FORUM provides fair, affordable, and accessible civil justice to all through recruitment, selection and management of a highly experienced and distinguished panel of over 1,600 former judges and seasoned lawyers. Expert FORUM arbitrators and mediators apply reasonable rules and substantive law to resolve disputes. The FORUM is the faster, lower cost and superior alternative to litigation, that ensures parties receive the same outcomes they would in court.”
A recent decision caught our eye, with regards to the domain name CheapValium.us.
Valium is a trademark with a history going back 50 years, when it was registered in December 1961 at the USPTO.
The Respondent, Jatin Jani of Expired Domains LLC did not address the issue, brought forth by the manufacturers of valium, Roche Products Inc. The decision was made, naturally, for the Respondent to hand over the domain to the Complainant.
Roche Products Inc. owns CheapValium.net, CheapValium.org and CheapValium.info – along with Valium.com. It’s interesting, that Roche went after the .US first, given that the domain is taken in the .com.
It is our hunch that because of the Nexus requirements, the .US was easier to obtain via the National Arbitration Forum. The dot com is owned by domain investor Adam Strong, according to DomainTools.
We believe that Roche Products Inc. plans to use the NAF decision on CheapValium.us in order to strong-arm the handing over of the .com.
Meanwhile, some silly fella registered Valium.us in February 2012 and it’s currently parked at Sedo. People need to stop registering domains of obvious, famous trademarks.
