Alaska Oil and Gas Association filed a UDRP against the AOGA.com domain name, and the organization prevailed. In reading the decision, I can see both sides of the case and think it’s a tough situation. I think it was probably the right call, but I think the rationale for the decision was bad.
Alaska Oil and Gas Association previously owned AOGA.com. According to the decision, the complainant reportedly had the domain name stolen from its account at Network Solutions:
“Complainant lost control of the Domain Name via a fraudulent unauthorized transfer in 2020. In the context of Complainant’s investigation, Complainant contacted the registrar where the Domain Name had been registered, Network Solutions and the Registrar, where the account had been transferred. Complainant was informed by Network Solutions that third parties had contacted that registrar and ordered a transfer, which per Complainant was not authorised. Complainant further learned that its account with Network Solutions had been accessed several times by different people in different parts of the world. Unknown to Complainant and without authorization, one or more persons infiltrated Complainant’s domain management account and transferred the Disputed Domain to another.”
Making matters worse, the domain name was apparently sold to someone else on NameJet. According to NameBio, AOGA.com was sold $1,193 on NameJet in December of 2020. I did not participate in the auction, but I looked at historical Whois records on DomainTools and it does not appear that this domain name was ever in expired status.
It seems plausible that the domain name was, in fact, stolen from the complainant and the domain name was acquired by the registrant at an auction for $1,193. Beyond contacting the AOGA to ask about the domain name, it would have been difficult to know the domain name was stolen, particularly if the buyer did not have access to a paid account at DomainTools or DomainIQ.
Yes, the complainant most likely had the domain name stolen from its account but the current registrant bought a 4 letter acronym domain name at auction without knowing it was stolen.
This makes things a bit murky, particularly because it’s a fairly generic domain name and the complainant organization is Alaska Oil and Gas Association and not a company called Aoga.
One big issue I have with the decision is where the panelist highlights the discrepancy between the purchase price and the registrant’s asking price as if it should matter:
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