CottonWorld.com : UDRP by Indian company fended off at the WIPO

UDRP has been denied.

The UDRP against CottonWorld.com by an Indian company has been denied at the WIPO.

Lekhraj Corp Pvt. Ltd. of Mumbai, India, asserted that the domain, registered in 2003, infringed on their mark for COTTON WORLD which is dated from 1989.

According to the UDRP documents, on June 22, 2015 the Respondent received an email from a Sanjay Sanju of Vijay Enterprises, a garment manufacturing company in India.

He noted that the Respondent wasn’t “really using” the Domain Name and expressed interest in acquiring it for USD 200. On learning that the Respondent paid “over mid 6 digits” for the Domain Name he responded “way too pricey … I’ll pass !!!”.

In the course of the exchange, he disclosed that his “family manufacture / export garments and are partners of Cotton World Corp (cottonworld.net)”.

Further part of the documentation shows that the Respondent did not acquire or use the domain in bad faith, despite not having paid 6 digits as they claim:

The Complainant has produced evidence to demonstrate that the Respondent (in the person of Anil) has strong Indian connections. His Facebook page indicates that his home town is or was originally Surat in India and that he is a Charter member of the Indian American Chamber of Commerce the principal aim of which is to “facilitate commerce between the United States and India”.

Accordingly, the Respondent might well have had reason to be aware of the Complainant back in 2009. The Complainant has also been able to establish that the Respondent paid approximately USD 3,600 for the Domain Name, which appears to contrast with the Respondent’s claim to have paid “over mid 6 digits” for it.

In the end, a three member panel at the WIPO, consisting of Tony Willoughby (presiding panelist),  Pravin Anand and Frederick M. Abbott noted that the domain should remain with the Respondent; a request for a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking was declined, however.

For the decision on CottonWorld.com click here.

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