UDRP against a .US.com domain.
CentralNic has been promoting .US.com domains as viable alternatives to .com for many years now; the reasons that they give are as follows:
- Availability – Get the names you really want! Over 98% of names still available (compared to .com)
- Reliability – Track record of 100% availability over the past fifteen years
- Worldwide Recognition – .US.COM names include the .com ending preferred by 50% of all websites
- Competitive Pricing – Great prices for the name you really want
Whether one agrees or disagrees with these statements is another story.
The fact is, that the owner of the domain GuessFactory.us.com was hit with a UDRP; this is the first such .US.com sub-domain we’ve seen being challenged via the process.
Complainant is Guess? IP Holder L.P. and Guess?, Inc. that own the world famous clothing line.
They operate from Guess.com and for the sake of this UDRP, they also own GuessFactory.com.
According to the Complainant:
“Respondent uses the domain name to sell counterfeit goods (including those of Complainant) in competition with those offered under Complainant’s mark.”
It didn’t take long for the sole panelist, the Honorable Charles K. McCotter, Jr. to order the domain GuessFactory.US.com to be transferred to the Complainant.
Read the full text of the UDRP decision.
