The world of corporate logic operates on its own distinct plane, and Edgewell, owners of popular brands for the personal hygiene market, seems to follow that paradigm.
One of the brands by Edgewell is Stayfree, a series of female hygiene products:
“STAYFREE pads have a long heritage of being an innovator in the sanitary protection category. Since launching the first beltless pad in 1974, the brand has been creating products that provide better and better performance with the goal of providing comfortable, dry protection. Today, STAYFREE pads feature THERMOCONTROL technology to quickly wick away moisture and flexible layers that move with your body.”
Although there is no doubt that Stayfree is a famous trademark for such products, the word mark is still an amalgam of two common dictionary words, “stay” and “free” and the owner of Stayfree.XYZ got slapped with a UDRP at the WIPO.
Domain investor, Joshua “Ike” Eisenhower, wanted just $299 dollars for the domain, and Edgewell opted to file a UDRP; the filing alone costs $1,500 dollars at the WIPO.
Additional costs include paying for attorney time, which we’d assume involved in-house counsels. Regardless, that’s thousands of dollars more in billable time.
Protecting a corporate trademark by all means involves using all necessary steps to shield it from third parties, but by comparing the total cost of legal arm twisting to the $299 price tag one seems to see what corporate logic is like.
Lorelei Ritchie, sole panelist at the WIPO, pointed out that the Complainant’s claim of “excessive out of pocket costs” was not documented:
Similarly, Complainant here points to an offer to sell the disputed domain name for USD 299, which, without more, the Panel is not prepared to find “in excess of documented out-of-pocket costs”. By contrast, the case cited by Complainant refers to an offer to sell for USD 75,000.
The case was decided for the Complainant, Edgewell Personal Care Brands, LLC of Shelton, Connecticut; read the full text of the UDRP here.
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