EDP.com has been recovered.
A Chinese domain thief was forced to return the stolen domain EDP.com via the UDRP process.
Back in July, we wrote about the Portuguese company EDP – Energias de Portugal, S.A. filing the case; we correctly speculated that the domain, which had been transferred away to the Chinese domain registrar, Ename, had been stolen.
In the UDRP, the Respondent was named as Huhan, Yuming Zhong of Xiamen, Fujian, China.
According to the UDRP:
“The Complainant asserts that, on September 10, 2014, it was informed by the then registrar of the disputed domain name that the disputed domain name was being transferred. The Complainant immediately engaged technical consultants in order to try to prevent the transfer, but was unsuccessful in preventing the transfer. “
The domain’s Registrar at the time of the theft was GoDaddy.
Sebastian M.W. Hughes, sole panelist, made the following decision regarding EDP.com:
“Although the Respondent has not made any use of the disputed domain name, the circumstances of this proceeding, including the fraudulent transfer of the disputed domain name, demonstrate that the Respondent must have known of the Complainant and of its rights in the Trade Mark at the time of the Respondent’s transfer of the disputed domain name. Furthermore, under the circumstances, the Respondent’s passive holding of the disputed domain name constitutes bad faith use for purposes of the Policy.”
EDP.com was thus ordered to be transferred to the Complainant; at the time of this article, this is still pending. To read the full text of the UDRP decision, click here.
It’s nice to see the UDRP panel getting more involved in stolen domains, however, I’m not sure that the thieves care about UDRP’s and more than likely won’t honor their decisions. What I would like to see next is the panel’s ability to activate local law enforcement in different parts of the world to put these thieves behind bars. It’s the only way they are going to learn.
Eric – The thief, who does not typically respond in such a case, has no control over the domain. Within 20 days after a decision, the domains are transferred automatically.