It looks like a UDRP was filed against KQ.com at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the complainant is listed as Kenya Airways Limited. The case is WIPO Case D2016-0153.
The domain name appears to be owned by a registrant based in China. If you visit KQ.com, you will see a message in Chinese, and after a short while, the domain name forwards to wangxin.com. KQ.com has a registration date of February 26, 1996. I searched through my email history, and I see the domain name appears to have been listed for sale back in 2011, although I am not sure if it sold. NameBio does not show any historical sales data for KQ.com.
I am not sure why Kenya Airways thinks it has the rights to take this valuable two letter .com domain name in this manner. Names such as this have been selling for mid to high six figures and even low seven figures for quite some time. It looks like KQ is Kenya Airways’ call sign, but I can’t see how the domain name is infringing on Kenya Airways’ rights (granted I don’t read Chinese, but the translation doesn’t seem to infringe).
Interestingly, in 2008, Lufthansa won a UDRP for LH.com in a “bad decision” as deemed by Mike Berkens. In a different UDRP filing last year, a company tried to wrest control of WI.com via the UDRP. That UDRP complaint was correctly denied.
Hopefully the owner of the domain name will hire a good UDRP attorney to defend his right to own this high value LL.com domain name. I will continue to monitor this UDRP and will provide an update when I see something.
Update: According to UDRPSearch.com, the complaint was denied and the owner will retain this valuable domain name.
hello Silva thanks for the update, but sincerely I have also just checked but I don’t see where it infringes but let wait and see the results.
When the domain owner wins this case, they need to expose this company. It seems there is no punishment handed out in cases, so companies are more willing to take a gamble.
It makes sense for the domain owner to hire the best UDRP lawyer. We all know who that is. Teach these companies a valuable lesson. Entitlement doesn’t mean you can take what doesn’t belong to you for free.
A lot of these UDRPs are filed on the assumption the other party will fail to submit a response or an adequate response.
In this case, it seems Kenya Airways is using the ‘KQ’ IATA designation as part of its brand – visible in the KQ logo – and in the following domains:
kqcargo.com
kqholidays.com
kqpridecentre.com
kqmro.com
kqmsafiri.com
All these serve as portals to services. It’d be safe to assume that Kenya Airways is going aggressively after the domain as an integral part of its brand.
Because of the short response time, and because Respondent has only 10 days to file an appeal in court following an adverse UDRP opinion, it is advisable to consult legal counsel as soon as the initial copy of a Complaint is received