DivideX.com UDRP : No win for the Complainant, no RDNH for the Respondent

UDRP has been denied.

Dividex Management, LLC of Westwood, Massachusetts, attempted to get the domain DivideX.com via the UDRP process.

The domain was registered in 2002, and the Complainant operates from the matching .net.

Complainant is the owner of the DIVIDEX mark, which was registered with the United States Trademark Office on April 19, 2016. The mark is associated with a number of uses relevant to fields such as securities and financial management.

Despite the domain’s seniority to the mark by a whopping 14 years, the Complainant went ahead with the filing of a UDRP, demanding the domain to be handed over.

They lost the case, narrowly missing on a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking, as the Respondent had sought.

Lawrence K. Nodine, sole panelist at the WIPO, denied the transfer, stating:

Complainant applied to register its mark a full decade after Respondent registered its domain name. Moreover, at the time of Respondent’s switch to alleged bad faith links in May 2013, Complainant had not started using the mark. Complainant filed an intent-to-use application a week before Respondent registered the disputed domain; Complainant’s resulting registration recites first use in commerce two years later—in May 2015. There is, therefore, no basis for inferring that in 2013 “respondent was clearly aware of the complainant…” when he allegedly made a significant change in the character of the use of the disputed domain name.

For the full decision on DivideX.com click here.

Copyright © 2024 DomainGang.com · All Rights Reserved.