The UDRP brought against the owners of the domain name, Opulence.com, resulted in an epic failure for the Complainant.
A single member panel at the National Arbitration Forum, consisting of Mr. Paul M. DeCicco, decided that the Complainant, Horizon Publishing LLC of Florida, has no legitimate interest in the domain.
The decision ended with a reverse domain name hijacking finding against the Complainant; a double-win for the Respondent, who never actually sent in a response!
When contacted by the Complainant with a miserable offer of $1,250, the Respondent returned the favors with an equally outrageous $250,000 asking price. 😀
The Complainant’s applied-for trademarks for “OPULENCE” and “SOUTH FLORIDA OPULENCE” did not not sway the panelist, Mr. DeCicco, as they were applied for in late 2011.
Opulence.com was registered in 2004.
According to the Complainant’s web site:
“South Florida Opulence Magazine is published by Horizon Publishing LLC and is designed especially for connoisseurs of luxury condominium living. The magazine celebrates South Florida’s fine taste in culture and arts, entertainment, finance, fashion, business, haute cuisine, fine wine and spirits, as well as architecture, interior design, real estate, travel, technology and, of course, condominium living.”
Rick Schwartz will definitely have a field day with the RDNH findings! 😀 Particularly, the analysis by Mr. DeCicco:
“In bringing its Complaint and as discussed above, Complainant overtly disregards facts and law which should have been well known to Complainant prior to filing; namely that the at-issue domain name domain name was registered about six years prior to Complainant having any possible trademark interest in the OPULENCE mark(s),and that it is black letter in all but very specific circumstances a UDRP complaint must fail when the complainant lacks trademark rights at the time the at-issue domain name was first registered.
Since Complainant, through Counsel, knew, or should have known, that its Complaint should, and likely would, fail but nevertheless choose to file the Complaint anyway, the only purpose for doing so must have been in the hope that the reviewing panel would overlook Complainant’s lack of rights at the time the domain name was registered and erroneously rule in Complainant’s favor. Alternatively, Complainant may have filed its losing Complaint to intimidate an unwitting domain name’s owner into making a favorable deal with Complainant, rather than risk an unfavorable decision where he or she would get nothing. Filing a complaint for either of these purposes represents an abuse of the UDRP process.”
Read the full decision here.
This post is 100% true!
