GrubHub Gets It All Backwards in Domain Dispute
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
A battle for foodies.
Online food delivery portal GrubHub.com has lost a domain name dispute against the owner of HubGrub.com, with a National Arbitration Forum panelist finding against GrubHub.com on all counts.
It’s an interesting case for a few reasons. First, it points out there might be confusion of word order when you use a two word domain name. This is something for entrepreneurs to think about; they might want to get both versions of their domain name.
Second, part of GrubHub.com’s failing, according to the panelist, was that the trademark “GrubHub” was registered in an individual’s name, while the complaint was brought by that person’s (presumably) company instead of the individual. The individual needed to assign the trademark to the company or file an affidavit explaining this discrepancy. Even had this not been the case, the panelist said HubGrub is not confusingly similar to GrubHub.
Third, at least as the panelist summarized each party’s contentions, there was a lot of contradiction. The panelist’s summary of the complainant’s contentions says:
Respondent’s website is not operational and purports to be “available soon”
and then:
Respondent’s website format and design is intentionally set up to mimic grubhub.com’s website
These seem to contradict.
The respondent’s assertions make some sense, although it looks like the respondent reversed course recently and launch HubGrub as a site dedicated to hunger charities.
Further Reading:
Tags: National Arbitration Forum, udrp
I like both and deliverybuzz.com as well. Ordering food online makes things so simple.