Italian victory at the WIPO over Alessandro.com.
Alessandro.com, a domain registered in 1998 by an American of Italian descent, was challenged in a UDRP by Alessandro International GmbH of Düsseldorf, Germany.
The domain’s registrant, Alessandro Gualandi of New York, represented himself against the Complainant’s legal team, and won the case.
How could he not, when he used the domain that matches his own given name, continuously, for 17 years?
Here’s what the Complainant asserted in this case:
“The Complaint states that Respondent did not actively contacted Complainant, but when contacted by Complainant in order to purchase the disputed domain name, he Respondent acted in a way that indicates bad faith. In one of the emails Respondent ended negotiations because he had not received an offer and accused Complainant of not dealing in good faith. In another email Respondent explained that the disputed domain name is not for sale but he offered to Complainant the domain name <alessandro.ws> for EUR 25,000. This email was ended with the sentence: “Thanks for your inquiry and meantime God bless your morning cup and may you coffee be hot and strong.”
Hilarious as it is, the response apparently triggered the Complainant’s wrath, that put off further contact for a few more years; in the meantime, the owner of Alessandro.com listed some of his domains for sale – mostly Italian words – on his namesake web site.
The WIPO panelist, Pablo A. Palazzi, cut through this pile of bologna and delivered the following decision, stopping short of a Reverse Domain Name Hijacking finding:
“The Panel visited the website using the Wayback Machine and was able to verify that Respondent offered for sale several domain names. The Panel notes that all of those domain names seem to be generic terms or dictionary terms in Italian language. Thus it is not possible to conclude that Respondent was acting in bad faith because Respondent was only offering for sale dictionary terms domain name.
In addition those domain names are not the disputed domain name, and Respondent clearly indicated that it was not on sale. Finally the fact that Respondent has registered two other domain names with the term “alessandro” is not indicative that the disputed domain name <alessandro.com> was registered in bad faith. First, as already stated, the disputed domain name was registered in the 1997 (according to Respondent) or in the year 1998 (according to the WhoIs record). There is no evidence on the record that at the time of registering the disputed domain name Respondent knew of Complainant’s trademarks. For the foregoing reasons, the Complaint is denied.”
For the full case of the UDRP against the domain name Alessandro.com, click here.
Nice to see a sane decision.