BlackJack.
It’s all about a deck of cards these days, and BlackJack.com is no exception.
The aged domain – registered in 1996 – was challenged at the National Arbitration Forum.
According to the UDRP, the three (!) Complainants – Cary Pinkowski, Darren Little, and Joe Whitney – asserted having common law rights in the BLACKJACK.COM mark, dating back to its first use in commerce in October 2000.
The web site at BlackJack.com presents content related to a variety for card games.
Cutting to the chase, a three member panel not only refused to transfer the domain BlackJack.com away from the Respondent, but also delivered a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking on the following basis:
“The Panel finds that Complainant must have known and in all probability did know, that it was bringing its claim in the wrong forum because the dispute was inherently a complicated contractual dispute beyond the scope of the UDRP and it must also have known that both the terms of the Policy and the accepted practice prevented such a claim from being entertained in this forum. Accordingly, Complainant must have known that it could not prove Respondent lacked rights or legitimate interests or that Respondent had engaged in bad faith registration and use of the domain name. Moreover, the case presented by Complainant was such that it required Complainant to rely on a series of contentious allegations that could only be proved, if they could be proved at all, by evidence and argument completely beyond the limited processes available in proceedings under the Policy. “
For the full text of the UDRP, click here.
