Cases shouldn’t be heard if they’re this bad.
So this guy William (Bill) Robert Johnson forms a company called Aahara Enterprises Pty. He registers the domain aahara.com on October 3, 2011 for his business.
But he also wants Ahara.com, and tries to buy it from the owner. The owner’s last name is Hara, and the owner’s sister is Asuka Hara (A. Hara). The owner registered the domain over a decade ago.
Negotiations to buy the domain don’t go to Johnson’s liking so he files a UDRP.
The domain owner obviously won this easy case. Johnson didn’t even get past the first element of the dispute.
Yet the domain owner still had to take the time to respond to the complaint. Even worse, panelist Michael A. Albert didn’t consider reverse domain name hijacking.
This was an easy case for Albert. He only had to write about the first of three prongs in UDRP. He should have taken the time to find that the case was brought in bad faith.
It reminds me of the ShopZooey.com case, although I’m conflicted on which complaint was worse.
The kicker: Ahara.com seems to be for sale right now for only GBP 1,500.
Nacho Domain says
Sickening !
MethodicJon says
Agreed, horrible. I sadly suspect that they are now selling it to pay legal fees.
rs says
The arbitator in this cases advertises at his web site that he takes on clients for UDRP filings AND advertises that he is also an arbitrator. Isn’t this unethical?
http://www.wolfgreenfield.com/practices_services/internet-domain-names
Andrew Allemann says
@ RS – he’s not the only one.