Greg Ricks and Igal “MrsJello LLC” Lichtman at TRAFFIC Las Vegas in 2010.
Pavo.com, a domain owned by Mrs. Jello LLC – the trading outfit of late domain investor Igal Lichtman – has been saved at a WIPO UDRP.
The Complainant owns the PAVO mark in The Netherlands; they sell such marked products in 25 countries.
The Respondent was represented by Oshman & Mirisola, LLP. Part of their defense stated:
“The Respondent purchased the Disputed Domain Name at a public auction for $2,906.95. Over the past decade, the Respondent has paid other costs associated with the ownership of the Disputed Domain Name. […] The Respondent had been making use of the Disputed Domain Name for almost seven and a half years before the Complainant made an unsolicited offer to purchase the Disputed Domain Name. There was no way the Respondent could have known of the Complainant’s existence when the Respondent registered the Disputed Domain Name. The Complainant does not do business in the US.”
The Mrs. Jello LLC defense also pointed out the generic meaning of Pavo.com, as pavo means different things in various languages and is often incorporated into other existing trademarks, whether registered or not.
The final statement in this UDRP decision, as delivered by John Swinson, sole panelist, was as follows:
“In summary, the Panel finds that the Respondent was at liberty to register the Disputed Domain Name as a common term. The Respondent has plausibly denied that it knew of the Complainant when the Respondent registered the Disputed Domain Name. There is no evidence that in making the registration the Respondent targeted the Complainant or the PAVO Mark.”
For the full text of the UDRP decision for the domain Pavo.com, click here.
