A registered trademark does not give automatic rights to a domain.
UDRP cases filed at the WIPO often deliver a negative finding for the Respondent, but that was not the case with the domain KidsAndUs.com.
The Complainant is Kids & Us English, S.L. of Barcelona, Spain – a company incorporated in 2007. They operate from the .net.
From 2010 onwards, the Complainant registered the marks KIDS & US SCHOOL OF ENGLISH, KIDS & US LANGUAGE SCHOOL and KIDS & US in numerous territories worldwide.
The Respondent did not file a response, and in such cases almost always the default decision favors the Complainant.
Not so, in this case, as the eagle-eyed WIPO panelist, Steven A. Maier, pointed out that the domain KidsAndUs.com was registered on May 7, 1999. The Respondent appears to be the original registrant of the domain, according to the DomainTools historic WHOIS.
Said Mr. Maier:
“In the present proceeding, the disputed domain name was registered some eight years before the Complainant came into being or started to trade under the mark KIDS & US. In the circumstances, even though the disputed domain name may have been used in bad faith, the Panel cannot conclude that Complainant has met its burden under paragraph 4(a)(iii). The Complaint must therefore fail on that basis.”
In other words, the domain was ordered to remain with the Respondent.
For the full text of the UDRP, click here.
