Legal News

A UDRP was filed against the valuable Rid.com domain name at the ADR Center of the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC). The three member panel unanimously ruled in favor of the domain registrant, and the complaint was rejected. The domain registrant was represented by attorney Zak Muscovitch of Muscovitch Law P.C. Zak also serves as General Counsel of the ICA trade organization.

The complainant in this UDRP was Oystershell Consumer Health, Inc. This company acquired the RID lice treatment brand from Bayer Health in July of 2020. The domain registrant acquired Rid.com at auction in 2008. Not only is Rid.com valuable because it is a 3 letter .com domain name, but it is also a one word .com domain name. In my view, Rid.com is easily worth six figures retail.

One reason the complainant filed the UDRP to get the Rid.com domain name is because it believes it is “essential to the further development of the brand outside of the US.” I think the domain registrant’s rebuttal to this was stellar: “merely being covetous of a Domain Name does not warrant transfer pursuant to the UDRP.”

In ruling in favor of the domain registrant, the panel reaffirmed the rights of domain registrants to acquire and own domain names as investments. I thought this excerpt is particularly noteworthy:

A UDRP has been filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against the high value ETC.com domain name. Created in 1992, ETC.com has been registered for nearly 30 years. The UDRP case is WIPO Case D2021-1467.

On the homepage of ETC.com, there’s a note that states “Welcome to the Etcetera Technology Corporation home page! Pardon our dust – still under construction.” An about us page linked to on the homepage has more information about the company that owns ETC.com:

“Etcetera Technology Corporation was formed in 1992 by Randy Smith and Joe Habermann to develop security software for corporate and campus internets. Since that time we’ve expanded our focus to include other aspects of networking and security.

ETC is a closely held company that is currently located in Naperville, Illinois.”

Merriam Webster defines the word “botanica” as “a shop that deals in herbs and charms used especially by adherents of Santeria.” When it comes to domain names, botanica is a popular keyword, with DomainTools showing 190 domain names registered with botanica as the keyword. In my opinion, Botanica.com is the most valuable of these registered domain names.

Unfortunately for the registrant of Botanica.com, a UDRP was filed against the domain name at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The complainant in this UDRP is a company called Botanica GmbH. I believe this company operates on a ccTLD extension.

Attorney Jason Schaeffer of ESQWire.com recently won a UDRP proceeding in defense of Aveed.com. The UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Although the three member panel did not rule give a RDNH ruling, I think some of the language in the decision could prove to be useful to investors.

Aveed.com was acquired by a domain investor for $1,025 on January 16, 2021. The decision did not mention it, but NameBio shows the domain name was sold via GoDaddy Auctions. This means the auction would have been available for anyone to participate, including the complainant.

Here’s an excerpt from the decision where the panel opined on the strategy of acquiring domain names for investment purposes via expiry domain auction:

Yesterday afternoon, I noticed a UDRP was filed against the high value, one word, Mahogany.com domain name. Because the UDRP was filed at the NAF, the complainant was not publicly known. There are hundreds of companies that have the word Mahogany as part of their branding, and in addition, there are many companies that sell mahogany, a popular high-end type of timber.

It was pointed out to me on Twitter that Rob Monster posted a copy of the notice he received regarding this UDRP since Mahogany.com is registered at Epik. Apparently, the complainant in the UDRP is Hallmark Licensing, the greeting card company:

I’ve heard differing opinions about setting up a catch all email for domain names owned by investors. What this means is that any email sent to any email address for that domain name will be delivered to an inbox controlled by the domain registrant. Whether emails received are typos or spam messages, everything gets delivered. I have never been a fan of doing this, and a recent UDRP loss illustrates why it can put a domain name in peril.

A UDRP was filed against Magna.CO at WIPO. The complainant, Magna International Inc.,  uses the Magna.com domain name for its website. When I saw that the Magna.CO domain name was lost in the UDRP, I was curious to see what happened. In my opinion, without considering the usage of the domain name, Magna seems like a generic term. As such, Magna.CO should conceivably be safe to own.