Sedo is still the technical contact for the domain, two years later.
A UDRP brought at the National Arbitration Forum for the domain name, Creativ.com, ended with the Complainant’s defeat – despite rendering no response by the domain owner, and the existence of pending trademark applications.
The single member panel pointed out that two years of use for the term and a thousand followers on Twitter do not automatically establish “common law rights” over a domain name registered in 1999.
But that’s not all.
The UDRP does not identify the Respondent, and there is a reason for that: The WHOIS info is all screwed up, thanks to GoDaddy’s implementation of a screwy transfer system that modifies contact information.
Apparently, the domain was sold in late 2011 to a “Chad Estes” from Los Gatos, California, with a phone number and a perfectly valid address. GoDaddy shifted all that info around, even replacing the email address with its own “nocontactsfound@secureserver.net”.
The domain owner used the GoDaddy WHOIS shield to protect his identity, but when the UDRP was served, GoDaddy removed it.
The cherry on the pie: Sedo’s escrow/transfer service is still listed as the Tech contact for the domain! 😀
Overall, a very close call for the lucky domain owner of Creativ.com; this could have led to a finding of reverse domain name hijacking, had the registrant responded.
You can read the full case here.
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