A UDRP has been filed against Weeds.com, Weeds.net, and Weeds.org at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The UDRP is WIPO Case D2017-1517.
Interestingly, these three domain names appear to be owned by three different domain registrants. Weeds.com and Weeds.org are registered under privacy proxy, but a Whois history search at DomainTools shows that these domain names were owned by separate entities prior to the Whois record being made private, and I don’t see anything to indicate that they were sold.Weeds.net has a public Whois record that shows it is owned by Name Administration (Frank Schilling’s company). Weeds.com was registered in 1998, Weeds.net was registered in 1999, and Weeds.org was registered in 2002.
All three of these domain names are parked at Uniregistry. As one might expect based on the “weeds” keyword, these three domain names have pay per click advertising with weed and lawn care related keywords. These three domain names have some form of “for sale” notice at the top of the landing page. I would be curious if the complainant tried to buy these valuable domain names before filing the UDRP.
The complainant in this UDRP is listed as Weeds, Inc. A Google search shows a company with that name uses WeedsInc.com for its website. I am not positive that this is the company that filed the UDRP but it would be my first guess. According to the WeedsInc.com website, the company is in the weed control business.
Because “weeds” is a generic term and the monetization of all three domain names is in line with the actual meaning of the term, I don’t see how the complainant will be able to prove all three elements of a UDRP to win. I will be curious to see how the UDRP is handled assuming these three domain names are owned by different domain registrants.
I will keep an eye on this proceeding and will share an update when I learn more.
Update: Weeds.com UDRP complaint has been denied (decision not yet published). Unfortunately for the domain owner, a lawsuit was apparently filed, according to DNW.
Weeds,inc has one TM dated 2007. first use 2007 but applied for in 2005??
And another TM pending. Maybe more but it didn’t jump out at me. Something like 450 live TMs containing the word ‘weeds’.
The 3 domains were registered in 1990’s.
My money is on John Berryhill for the .net.
Based on most of these arbi”traitor” decisions I would expect they will give weedsinc the names. Gee Weeds.com is showing ads for weed control etc?? go figure. As a manufacturer all I have to do is pay gargoogle to display an ad on the domain I want and then file the udrp. Simple.
Generic my @ss, it’s showing my ads. Give me the domain. Nice system. You think they would give each respondent a chance to fix the problem rather than just awarding valuable names to thieves. Great industry we have here. Decades of nonsense using a kangaroo arbitration system that is bent towards the complaintant. imnsho.
“Weeds”= super generic term/word
WeedsINC=WeedsINC
Weeds=Weeds
Stay in your lane= Pure competion
The work is changing and more to come; how about your world? “Pure Competition” ?
Well, in Canada with the upcoming legalization of the other type of “weed”, I would think these names have traction way beyond lawn care…
The on going issues in today’s business globe. When he or she trademarked their whatever; the first thing they planted into their mind is toxic weeds. They think they own the whole globe weeds; yes they do, the toxic once.
They registered weedsINC.com, but expected that intire weeds names and associated with it belong them
WeedsINC= WeedsINC=stay in your lane
If you want all weeds names, then register them and pay; that’s all you have to do. Otherwise, learn the market cycle and changes. “PURE COMPETITION”.
Weeds is obviously a generic term, being used for a generic use.
Regardless of what their trademark is, it does not give them exclusive ownership of a generic keyword for the generic use.
This should obviously be rejected with a RDNH finding.
Brad
“I will be curious to see how the UDRP is handled assuming these three domain names are owned by different domain registrants.”
…who are represented by two different lawyers.
When this sort of thing happens, when WIPO receives the registrar confirmation noting different registrants, then WIPO will invite the complainant to either split it up into separate proceedings or else present reasons why there is “common control” among the registrants.
Personally i am really nervous about this issue as i am the owner of the domain name “weeds.for sale” purchased recently.I just sent a mail to the site Trademark247 to know more about this now.
More info about the RDNH finding: https://domaininvesting.com/weeds-com-udrp-reverse-domain-name-hijacking-ruling/