I recently wrote about the GWG.com UDRP that was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The decision was published today, and the three member panel found in favor of the domain owner. In addition, the panel concluded that Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) had occurred.
According to the decision, “the Panel’s view is that there are several reasons why a finding of RDNH should be made.” The decision then listed several reasons for why it found this UDRP to be RDNH.
One thing I found very interesting is that the panel wrote about why it chose to make a reverse domain name hijacking decision rather than simply rule in favor of the respondent. Here’s what was written about that:
“The other factor that the Panel has taken into account is the importance of preserving the integrity of the UDRP for legitimate claims, an objective that is not enhanced by declining to make a finding of RDNH in an appropriate case, of which this is one.”
A RDNH finding doesn’t really mean all that much since there are no penalties associated with it. As a result of this decision, the owner of the domain name gets to retain the domain name (which would have been the case even without the RDNH finding).
The domain owner was represented by the attorneys at ESQwire.com P.C., Ari Goldberger and Jason Schaeffer.