Talk of this UDRP as if the kettle is calling the pot black – or something like that.
Chinesepod Limited of London, United Kingdom, got all pissy-headed and filed a UDRP against the owners of the domain ChinesePot.com.
Now then, we aren’t sure whether the registrant had the porcelain kind in mind, or the weed type, but that’s not important.
Despite the domain being parked and displaying ads about Chinese teapots, the Complainant asserted that they are somehow breaching their trademark for CHINESEPOD; the mark specifically applies to Chinese language learning services.
With that in mind, the sole WIPO panelist, Maxim H. Waldbaum, refused to order the domain transferred, and most likely took a sip of hot tea after that.
“The Panel disagrees that a Google search for “Chinesepot” that returns a list of results such as Chinese porcelains and cooking recipes will be considered as a proof of bad faith, i.e., that the mere purpose of Respondent’s registration of the Disputed Domain Name is to prevent Complainant’s trade mark or service mark from reflecting the mark in a corresponding domain name.”
For the record, the Respondent did not produce a response at all, so they should consider themselves extremely lucky over this decision.
For the full details of this case about the domain ChinesePot.com, click here.
