MySQL is a registered and famous mark.
Right on course for setting a new world record for being served with the most UDRP cases in a year, the British company Yoyo Email Ltd. lost yet another UDRP at the WIPO.
The Complainant, MySQL AB, challenged the Respondent’s registration of the domain MySQL.email. The MySQL trademark has been registered since 2003 and it’s quite famous as a relational database product and service.
The recipe for disaster was repeated once again, with the Respondent denying that any trademark infringement took place; and yet, not unveiling the underlying ‘genius‘ of an alleged service that somehow uses corporate brands and trademarks.
Houston Putnam Lowry was the panelist in this case, and among the things he said was the following:
“Complainant did not waive its rights by failing to take action during the sunrise period. […] Complainant claims Respondent has made no active use of the <mysql.email> domain name. This is true. Furthermore, Respondent has not provided a “detailed” plan for a future use other than to say it was creating a “domain name registry and a new system based upon that directory to record the sending and receipt of emails.” That isn’t much detail and is not technically possible (unless Respondent were to control all email servers on the internet…something that would at least violate the spirit of the UDRP and is practically impossible). It is possible to find bad faith registration and use by a simple passive holding of a domain name. A party may not escape the UDRP by doing nothing with a domain name. To hold otherwise would be to eviscerate the UDRP. Based upon these facts, this Panel finds bad faith registration and use on that basis as well.”
As in numerous other cases in 2014 and this year, the UDRP for the domain MySQL.email was decided on behalf of the Complainant.
For the full text of this UDRP, click here.
