This year in the US will be remembered for its colorful presidential elections, set in November.
Republican hopeful, Donald Trump, will be facing Hillary Clinton, in a battle of the sexes and wits.
Domain investors eager to capitalize on the names of both candidates have been registering political domains.
There is a line, however, drawn at the use of corporate trademarks, and “TRUMP” is one.
In a UDRP against the owner of the domain TrumpSpa.com, the Complainant is The Donald.
Not in person, but via his outfit DTTM Operations LLC of New York.
Trump’s business venture owns THE TRUMP SPA as well, a mark established in 2001 for fitness classes in the nature of aerobics, calisthenics, kick boxing, step training and yoga, personal fitness training, along with health spa and beauty salon services, namely, massages, mud body treatments, hydrotherapy and facials.
They also own TheTrumpSpa.com, which is currently sitting undeveloped.
The sole panelist, Lynda J. Zadra-Symes, noted that the disputed domain name resolves to a parked webpage that is tantamount to “passive holding”; this kind of activity may constitute evidence of bad faith use.
Regardless of the ambiguity of the parking pages argument, as other UDRP cases have used the domain monetization use as a valid domain function, this case was a clear case of trademark infringement.
Trump 1 – Squatters 0.
For the full text of the UDRP, click here.
The Trump Spa.
