Registered trademarks aren’t to be messed with.
Two weeks ago, we covered the first recorded UDRP for a dot .Company domain name; Statoil, a Norwegian oil company undertook the task of protecting its trademark.
In this case, the same company filed a UDRP against the registrant of the domain name, Statoil.email.
The Respondent, Giovanni Laporta of UK, asserted that the domain is not infringing on the Complainant’s mark; furthermore he claimed that he offers legitimate email services using this and other domain names, having invested more than 78,000 British pounds establishing a company with staff that built “operational systems” providing email services.
The Respondent’s main business is called Yoyo.Email, Ltd.
The three panelists on this case, Brigitte Joppich, Linda Chang, and David E. Sorkin, mentioned:
“To register another’s trademark as a domain name and using that domain name connecting to a web service with the specific goal to earn money from active users and advertising connected to the use of the trademark related web service, cannot be considered as legitimate interest.”
The Respondent did not convince the panelists, who decided that the domain name, Statoil.email, should be transferred to the Complainant.
For the full text of this UDRP case, click here.
