ServerCheck.com : WIPO panelist performs extensive due diligence on aged domain

UDRP denied.

UDRP denied.

The WIPO panelist examining the UDRP for the domain ServerCheck.com did extensive due diligence.

Despite a lack of response by the Respondent in this UDRP, Andrew D. S. Lothian, took a good look at the case, going as far as to peruse domain records from DomainTools historic WHOIS.

The Complainant is Serverscheck BVBA of Zaventem, Belgium, alleged that the domain ServerCheck.com that was registered in 1997, violates is mark, SERVERCHECK,which was granted in 2014. The company operates from the domain ServersCheck.com.

The Complainant asserted that November 2014 is the date that the Respondent acquired the domain, but the WIPO panelist disagreed.

“The Panel regards it as significant that the earliest available WhoIs record in respect of the disputed domain name shows the registrant as “Planet Earth Communications” with an administrative contact of “Freedomstarr Communications, Inc.”. This is an entity with which the Respondent claims a close association in that the Registrar’s website asserts that he was its co-founder. Furthermore, in the term “Freedomstarr” it evidently shares the Respondent’s surname as an element of its name, being a further possible link. No explanation is available concerning the next registrant of the disputed domain name, although it is significant that the administrative contact address bears some relation to later addresses which are directly associated with the present Registrar and thus with the Respondent as its CEO. Similarly, from July 2007, the historic WhoIs record shows the present Registrar itself as the registrant. The other co-founder of the present Registrar begins to appear on WhoIs records from 2011 and ultimately from November 30, 2014, the disputed domain name is transferred to DCC Corporate. The Registrar asserts that the latter is a privacy service and that the Respondent has always been the underlying registrant since 1997.”

But that was not the only reason this UDRP failed.

The panelist pointed out that the time lapsed between the registration of the SERVERCHECK mark and the alleged change of ownership for the domain in November 2014, was merely two months.

That, gives zero ability to the Complainant to establish a presence for its mark to be recognized globally. He also pointed out the generic nature of the words that the domain consists of:

“The Panel adds for completeness that even had it accepted the Complainant’s contention that the relevant date for assessment of bad faith registration was November 30, 2014, it considers that the Complaint would still have failed. By that date, the Complainant’s rights had been in existence for just under two months. The Complaint is extremely brief and there is no information in it which would have allowed the Panel to find on the balance of probabilities that the Respondent was targeting the Complainant’s rights. The second level of the disputed domain name is the combination of two ordinary English words, “server” and “check”. The terms used in pay-per-click advertising both before and after November 30, 2014 seem to the Panel to be related to the ordinary meaning of those combined words, namely, some type of monitoring of computer systems. “

Some great research on several levels by Mr. Andrew D. S. Lothian, who ordered that the domain ServerCheck.com should remain with its owner.

For the full text of this UDRP, click here.

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