Capitalism works in America and UDRPs.
Out of dozens of UDRP decisions every week at the National Arbitration Forum, very few are decided on behalf of the Respondent.
In a case involving the domain name Hovermat.com, the Respondent – a self proclaimed “domain reseller” – decided to take the high road, that of ultimate cockiness.
And he won! 😀
Despite a registered trademark (1998) of the Complainant for “Hovermatt“, the Respondent, an apparent inventor of a system “which provides a suspension system for Heavy Audio Speaker Systems which have a negative effect of ‘vibrating objects’ around Stereo System”, prevailed via the use of some unusual defense.
First, he didn’t hide the fact that as a domain reseller he does exactly that: resells domain names, but that Hovermat.com – a 2010 registration – made it onto the resale server “accidentally.”
Mmmkay.
Second, he stated that he never heard of the Complainant’s trademark.
Right.
Lastly, and most impressively, he quipped that Complainant should have been “diligent and smart enough” to purchase the disputed domain name for itself. “America would not be capitalist economy (sic.)” if Complainant’s “frivolous accusations were allowed by law”.
Gasp!
After this type of defense, the Respondent won one out of three necessary points that the Complainant had to prove: registration and use in bad faith, and thus the domain remained with the Respondent.
You can read about this capitalist American’s win, right here.
This post is 100% true!
Very interesting case. Thanks.
absolutely brilliant, to have the balls to do that, and win! very lucky domainer 🙂