Juniper Networks Loses Case for Juniper.tv
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
$15B company loses UDRP case.
Juniper Networks has lost a domain name arbitration case to get the domain juniper.tv. Despite having a market cap of nearly $15 billion, the arbitrator noted that it’s entirely plausible that the registrant of the domain name hadn’t heard of the company because it’s a business-to-business company.
Also working against Juniper Networks is that juniper is a generic term. The registrant had registered other seemingly generic .tv domain names such as atmosphere.tv, lightbulb.tv, and regions.tv. (Of course the latter one is also the name of a bank, and the parked page at the domain currently shows banking ads.) The arbitration panelist wrote:
Here, the parking website formerly associated with the Domain Name was not focused on the Complainant’s or competing products, although both could be found through the layers of advertising links. The fact that ad server software would logically associate the Complainant (as well as other commercial enterprises) with the word “juniper” does not prove that the Respondent likely had the Complainant’s mark in contemplation when he registered the Domain Name, which is what would be required to establish bad faith in the registration and use of the Domain Name.
It would be easier to infer such an illicit intention if the Complainant’s mark were not comprised of dictionary words
Incidentally, Juniper Networks does not own Juniper.com, and instead uses Juniper.net as its main web address.
Further Reading:
- Peruvian Broadcaster Loses Case for RPP.com
- A First: Complainant Loses Case for .Co Domain Name
- French Fashion House Loses Case for Guy’s Nickname Domain Name
Tags: udrp
Couple of interesting dates here.
First, it looks like the domain was registered during that .tv mini-landrush back in March.
Second, it was registered just a couple weeks before Juniper announced a $100m acquisition that gave it “TV-like” capabilities.
http://www.juniper.net/us/en/company/press-center/press-releases/2010/pr_2010_04_08-13_00.html
Timing, eh?
There’s also a TV production company in the UK called Juniper TV.
@ Kevin – interesting. I figured there was a reason they wanted a .tv now, but of course if it was just recently registered they may have become aware of the registration just recently.
This decision comes close to what I wrote about at Frank Schillings website.
Domain names should be treated like finger prints. Juniper Networks, if that is the name trademarked by a Corporation, should not be treated as the same name as Juniper.TV, or Juniper.COM, because the later has .TV and .COM in them whereas Juniper Networks does not, and actually in this case, contains “Networks”. If they wanted Juniper.TV or Juniper.COM, they should trademark the whole name “Juniper.TV”, or they should have to register the domain name or buy it from the Registrant, the true owner. That is my opinion. After all, Juniper.Net is different from Juniper.De, Juniper.cc, and so on….
This is only a test. “Test run,” that is.
If they had been successful with their misguided domain grab attempt of “juniper.tv”, their next move could have been going after the .com.
Interesting.
Henry.
Trying to establish a trademark right over something they don’t have might not be a good idea. But yup, trying to buy it from the owner is.
Sheesh, and surely they’ll make their investment back if ever?
You have to wonder why they didnt go after JuniperTV.com? If they wanted to protect the TV part of there business?
I think they just wanted to see if they could win the domain based on the “Juniper” part if they get the .TV then they could go after the .com also
Just my thoughts?
A scum company, but it’s all business. In that spirit, I would increase the price to money spent defending it X 100 for aggravation…just to talk and then we’ll figure out a price.
They chose UDRP hoping to get a senile arbiter, if they had a case a case they would chosen Federal courts, make no mistake about it.