While looking through my WIPO Domain Name Decisions email this morning, I saw something I do not recall seeing in a UDRP decision before. An Italian company called Advice Group S.P.A. filed a UDRP against the seemingly generic AdviceGroup.com. The domain registrant, who I believe is a domain investor, did not respond to the UDRP filing.
I was looking at UDRPSearch.com this morning, and I saw a UDRP filing I had not noticed before involving the Wasteless.com domain name. From my perspective, Wasteless.com or WasteLess.com (depending on the proper case) is a pretty generic domain name. In addition, Wasteless.com was created way back in 1996. In taking a very cursory look at the domain name and creation date, I do not believe this was going to be an easy UDRP for the complainant to win.
When I was looking over the recent UDRP decision on UDRPSearch.com, I was not surprised to see the claim denied on a 5 domain name UDRP filing, which included AlcoholicBeverageDevelopment.com and AlcoholicBeveragePacking.com. I didn’t even take a glance at the decision because I just assumed the UDRP was filed by a company that wrongly thought it could get control of some seemingly generic domain names.
It was not until I saw this tweet from IP and domain industry attorney John Berryhill that I learned there was more to this UDRP than meets the eye. In fact, it appears to involve a family dispute:
Earlier this year, outdoor clothing retailer Backcountry reportedly started to become more aggressive with regards to its Backcountry trademarks. The company, which operates on its brand match descriptive domain name (Backcountry.com), reportedly went after other companies and websites that were also using Backcountry in their branding. This made many people upset, especially when they learned that some of the companies in Backcountry’s crosshairs had been using the “Backcountry” branding for a long, long time:
There were a lot of upset gear customers this week after news dropped that the e-retailer was suing smaller brands for trademark infringement of the word “backcountry”. https://t.co/rMO5aOd6FC
— Outside Magazine (@outsidemagazine) November 7, 2019
Less than two weeks ago, I noticed that a UDRP had been filed against the Duggan.com domain name at the NAF. While Duggan stood out to me as a last name, what really caught my attention was a quick Whois search that showed that Duggan.com is owned by a person with Duggan as his last name. I think this fact should have made the complainant realize the UDRP will not succeed because it would seem impossible to prove the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith if the registrant’s last name is the same.
Naturals.com is now the subject of a UDRP proceeding at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The UDRP is WIPO Case D2019-2508. It looks like the UDRP was filed within the last few days.
