F5.net was lost in a UDRP.
The UDRP process has claimed another short, valuable domain, as F5.net was ordered to be transferred away from its registrant.
The 1998 registration was challenged at the WIPO by F5 Networks, Inc. of Seattle, Washington, that claimed rights to various F5 mark going as far back as 1997.
The company operates from the domain F5.com.
It’s puzzling how the domain was taken away after almost 20 years, however it was parked with PPC links containing ads related to the Complainant’s marks.
The Respondent’s lack of understanding English did not help much, although the panelist asserted that an email sent by the Chinese domain owner was a clear demonstration of the opposite:
[…] an email from one “zeng” which simply stated:
“The owner of the domain f5.net doesn’t know English very well, he cann’t [sic] understand the exact meanings of these files and your emails. So he let me tell you that he want you to express yourselves in Chinese. You do have the responsibility to let him understand what is happening.”
As noted above, there had been an earlier informal communication to the Center from the Second Respondent dated April 26, 2016. That email was expressed clearly in English, if slightly ungrammatically. It is not clear, therefore, why the “May 3” email was forwarded by someone who identified him or herself as “zeng”, rather than by the Second Respondent. Assuming for present purposes that it was in fact authorised by the Second Respondent, the Panel treats it as a request for the language of the proceeding to be Chinese, or at least to have all documents in the proceeding translated into Chinese.
It appears that the lack of defending this aged domain resulted in its loss. F5 is a common reference to function key “5” on any computer keyboard.
For the full text of this UDRP decision for the domain F5.net, click here.
