This is a UDRP that stands out from all the rest we’ve seen recently; the Complainant is Merlin Attractions Operations Limited of Poole, Dorset, UK and the domain in question is madametussaud.com.
Registered in 2002, madametussaud.com caught the attention of the Complainant, as they hold rights to the world famous Madame Tussauds wax museum and an impressive series of international trademarks.
Once the complaint was filed and the Registrant was copied, they started sending back a series of silly emails, with links to a YouTube video of a dog, such as:
– An email dated March 12, 2014, stating: “mad ametussaud My dogs name is Ametussaud and he is mad. I will be making a blog about him with photos.”
– An email dated March 12, 2014, stating: “Would you like me to include photos of my dog?”
– An email dated March 13, 2014, stating: “Can you please advise me what I need to do next?”
– An email dated April 8, 2014, stating: “Hello there […] Can you please explain what I failed to do? Have a great day and thanks for your time”.
– An email dated April 8, 2014, stating: “Hi […] Can you tell me what a submission is? I am pretty confused by this whole process. Its just [a] domain name for my pet dog”.
– An email dated April 9, 2014, stating: “Thanks for the info Miss […] I did reply with the explanation weeks ago when this first came up. I am not an attorney”.
– An email sent on April 10, 2014, stating: “Great thank you kindly for all your help with this. Make a great day”.
The single panelist didn’t take long to decide on this case, handing the 12 year old domain name madametussaud.com to the Complainant. There has not been a bark from the Respondent yet.
You can read about the case here.
