RDNH finding for Greentrust.com
Domain investor, Gregg Ostrick, has successfully fended off yet another attempt by an aggressor against his valuable domain portfolio.
In a case involving the aged domain Greentrust.com, IP attorney John Berryhill represented Ostrick against the Complainant, Nedbank Limited of Johannesburg, South Africa.
The Complainant alleged it has rights to the mark THE GREEN TRUST, and attacked the Respondent’s UDRP history:
” The Complainant says the Respondent has a long history of registration of domain names comprising third parties famous trade marks in combination with generic terms, or misspelled. In this regard the Complaint as originally filed stated as follows “The Respondent has been the subject of at least 8 prior proceedings under the UDRP in which he and/or his business GNO, Inc was found to have abusively registered and used the trade marks of third parties. “
For that, the Respondent stated:
“The Respondent also points out (with relevant details) that there are a number of registered trademarks in the United States for the term “Green Trust”, all postdating the Respondent’s registration of the Disputed Domain Name, and none of them have anything to do with the Complainant.
The Respondent says that when he registered the Disputed Domain Name in 2004 he had never heard of the Complainant or its “Green Trust” activities.
The Respondent fiercely disputes he has acted in bad faith and directly challenges the Complainant’s accusation of his having eight previous findings of abusive registration against him, which he characterizes as an “outright lie” and “purely libelous.””
A three member panel sided with the Respondent, and even delivered a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking:
“Given the nature of the Policy and the fact that the Complainant was legally advised by competent counsel this was a case which the Complainant should have appreciated had no reasonable prospects of demonstrating registration in bad faith. The Panel therefore finds that the Complaint was brought in bad faith and constitutes an abuse of the administrative proceeding.”
For the full text of the UDRP against the domain Greentrust.com, click here.
