Alternative rock group wins bizarre domain arbitration.
This is a follow up to the story I wrote in November (Rock Group Wants ThirdEyeBlind.net). Third Eye Blind has prevailed in the dispute.
In November I speculated:
The owners of ThirdEyeBlind.net seem to be dodging the band by changing its whois information repeatedly. The latest whois information shows the owner is “Third Eye Blinds & Curtains†of India. This seems like a ruse to claim that the domain will be used for a company with the same name. But the whois record has changed many times, according to DomainTools. It just changed to the current record between October 8 and October 24, 2008.
The respondent seems to have gone to great lengths to prove that it is really a window coverings business in India:
The Respondent claims to have acquired the disputed domain name because it matches the name of its business. The Respondent claims to have been developing a website in connection with that domain name, which is almost complete. As supporting evidence, the Respondent provides various copies of what it says to be draft webpages. The Respondent therefore claims to have a legitimate interest in the disputed domain name based on demonstrable preparations to use it, for the purpose of paragraph 4(c)(i) of the Policy.
The Respondent also claims to have a legitimate interest because it is “commonly known by†the disputed domain name for the purpose of paragraph 4(c)(ii) of the Policy. The Respondent provides a copy of what it says is a registration card with the Government of India and the Income Tax Department of India stating the firms name to be “Third Eye Blinds & Curtains†and that the date of formation has been given in the said card as April 15, 2007. The Respondent provides other evidence, including a brochure and an “estimate memo†under the name of “Third Eye Blinds and Curtainsâ€, which it says it provides to its clients.
The panel didn’t buy it, but also said it couldn’t prove otherwise. So it focused on other issues, such as how ThirdEyeBlind.net doesn’t have an ‘s’ on the end, which dramatically changes its meaning.
RKB says
Quote:
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So it focused on other issues, such as how ThirdEyeBlind.net doesn’t have an ’s’ on the end, which dramatically changes its meaning.
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That is very clever on the part of the panel.
Nice decision imo.
bad decision says
spitting hairs over the s?? unless the owner was consistently running parking ads for music and did it intentionally (not just autopages from the parking company) then he was robbed. Another bad decision from the panelists.
“The panel didn’t buy it, but also said it couldn’t prove otherwise.”
ouch. with decisions like this, this decision could be applied to every geo domain on the planet. Let’s say you own Seattle.com , run ads for Seattle info, hotels, city info, restaurants etc. Based on the above decision the panelist’s would award Seattle to the city if they wanted it. maybe a stretch but a good lawyer I’m sure could get it for Seattle. slippery slope, hold on.
Andrew Allemann says
@ bad decision – the panel looked at more than that.
I think it’s clear that the “owner” of the domain was trying to shift the domain around.
I don’t understand your Seattle.com reference. Third Eye Blind has a trademark to the term, the city of Seattle can’t trademark “Seattle”.
bad decision says
yes, the owner was “shifting” the domain around but I don’t think that means they were doing anything illegal. just trying to protect their interests.
– the panel admitted they could not prove anything.
Regarding Seattle, while I wasn’t aware a city or state couldn’t trademark their name, they surely must be drooling over the possibility of owning the .com version of their names. Any good lawyer should be able to make a solid argument to “the panel” to hijack just about any domain they want.
The panel just awarded the “blind” domain to the band even though the panel “couldn’t prove otherwise”.
not good. in my opinion.
Cheers!
Andrew Allemann says
@ Bad – I don’t know…I’m willing to guess 99% sure that the respondent made up everything about its business. Seems too fabricated. And why buy ThirdEyeBlind.com on the aftermarket instead of ThirdEyeBlinds.com?
belshass says
Agree with you on this one Andrew!
If they are “commonly known” as “Third Eye Blinds & Curtains” every logic would point to them using ThirdEyeBlindS.com !
they (if the company is real), should quickly run to the nearest registrar asap,
ThirdEyeBlindS.com shows a status of
“Deleted And Available Again”
at time of writing this! 😉
bestS,
Ritz
Rathna says
This seems to be very different issue.Why dont they check with the nearest registrar for the Owner?I think they will be able to find the answer there!.