UDRP has been denied.
Banking giant, Zions Bank, has won 27 UDRP filings against infringing domains; it lost one against the domain ZionVPN.com.
The Respondent in this UDRP at the WIPO, is a “John Mike” of Karachi, Pakistan – which might or might not be a pseudonym.
The domain was registered in January, and apparently Zions Bank monitors new domain registrations; the web site was not fully developed at the time of the UDRP.
Initial communication with the Respondent became increasingly hostile, to the point that they asked for an amount of between $500,000 to $1 million dollars in exchange for the domain!
Still, that was not enough evidence to lose the UDRP; the Respondent provided invoices showing payments made towards the development of the domain.
Tony Willoughby, sole panelist at the WIPO, delivered a decision that was positive for the Respondent, stating:
“While seeking excessive sums of money for transfer of a domain name can be indicative of bad faith registration and use (paragraph 4(b)(i) of the Policy), this was not a demand made directly of the Complainant. It was in an email to the Center sent after the Complaint had been launched and, in context, appears to the Panel to have been a hostile reaction to what the Respondent believed to be an unfounded complaint”
For the full text of this UDRP decision, click here.
I started reading this like a boxing match 27 – 0 even the good fighters loose a match.