I just received the newsletter including the latest WIPO decisions. Some prominent companies have won domain disputes again, including Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Burberry Limited.
Both companies were able to achieve the transfer of the disputed domain names: Lufthansa won Lufthansa.com.au and Burberry won BurberryGroup.com.
In the case of Lufthansa.com.au, the former owner had been so audacious as to approach Deutsche Lufthansa AG and offer the domain to them at a price of €10,000. Following that, Lufthansa contacted the owner using the contact information listed in the whois and asked for the domain to be transferred to them for free. The domain owner, however, did not do so. Instead, he chose to get back to Lufthansa with a lower price of €3,000. After some back and forth, including repeated requests to hand over the domain name, Deutsche Lufthansa AG finally decided to file the WIPO complaint. Throughout the proceedings, the respondent did not bother to respond to Lufthansa’s claims anymore, and he expectedly lost the domain name Lufthansa.com.au to the rightful new owner.
I’m always at a loss as to why anybody would purchase such obvious trademark infringements. I mean, I understand that there is a financial motivation, but the registration of these domains was obviously illegal. It is the bad faith use of domain names, like witnessed in the aforementioned cases, that gives the domain industry a bad name. Maybe you remember the LH.com ruling from 2008, which was a disastrous decision. But in the case of Lufthansa.com.au, Deutsche Lufthansa AG had the right to go after the domain name and rightfully won. Every time a self-proclaimed domain investor — who actually is a cybersquatter — registers or acquires a trademark-infringing domain, that will strengthen the lobby of large corporations. Those corporations might then decide to also go after domains they do not have any rights in, as has unfortunately happened with LH.com. This, in turn, weakens the position of professional domain investors and will make it more difficult for them to defend their generic domain names against attempts of reverse hijacking.
As an industry, we must stand together and fight cybersquatting. While supporting trademark holders with getting domains they are entitled to, we may not give them any reason to go after valuable, non-infringing keyword domains. This includes not to applaud those multi-millionaire domainers who have made a good part of their fortunes using TM-infringing typo domains. It also includes to educate the general public about the lawful trading of keyword domain names, called domaining or domain investing. The domain industry is still a young industry. It has come a long way and many companies and individuals in this field have accomplished a lot, but every time somebody trades a trademark-infringing domain, that will throw us a step back again. If we want the industry to continue to mature, we may not endure such destructive behavior.
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Well, at least his write-offs are minimal. The guy who paid some $150k for some six .me domains is poised to lose all of them: http://dot-me.of-cour.se/2008/10/24/porsche/
I guess they didn’t deserve better…