A UDRP against the domains Hug.com, Hug.net and Hug.org has been denied.
The Complainant, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève of Geneva, Switzerland, claimed trademark rights to the HUG acronym.
Wiley Rein LLP represented the Respondent, Aydin Karadeniz of Santa Monica, California.
According to the Respondent, he acquired all 3 domains for a project, paying almost half a million dollars for the set:
“The Respondent maintains that he has rights or legitimate interests in respect of the Domain Names. He states that he acquired the Domain Names in 2014, together with numerous other domain names containing the word “hug”, for use in connection with a search engine which he planned to develop.
His evidence is that he paid USD 403,585 for <hug.com>, USD 6,490 for <hug.net> and USD 10,200 for <hug.org> and he provides copies of closing statements of the escrow agent Escrow.com apparently confirming this. “
A three member panel at the WIPO declared the following:
“…the Complainant did not send any cease-and-desist letter or put any allegation of misconduct to the Respondent before filing the Complaint; and, on the other hand, it does not appear that the Complainant carried out any investigation itself before filing the Complaint that might have revealed whether the Respondent was acting in good or bad faith. This suggests at best a reckless disregard of the respondent’s possible entitlement to retain the disputed domain name.”
The domains were ordered to remain with the Respondent. On top of that, a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking was declared.
For the full text of the UDRP against the domains Hug.com, Hug.net and Hug.org, click here.
They can now all hug it out. Or not!
Kosta – The Complainant needs a hug, or 3, just about now 😀
This is HUG-e!