Panel rules that AutoOwner.com registrant can keep domain name.
In January I wrote about how Auto-Owners Insurance filed four UDRP cases against owners of domain names it said infringed its mark.
The first two decided cases went in favor of the insurance company, but domain attorney Paul Keating has reversed that trend.
Keating successfully defended the registrant of AutoOwner.com. The panel found that the insurance company didn’t show registration and use in bad faith. It determined that the owner registered the domain purely for the descriptive nature of the domain.
The other domains Auto-Owners Insurance went after included the word “insurance” in them, which makes a big difference here. The three cases filed with WIPO have been decided but there’s still one pending at National Arbitration Forum.
Also interesting in the AutoOwner.com case is that the registrant initially considered transferring the domain name to the company, but later changed his mind as a result of getting competent legal advice. As noted in a footnote in the decision:
In paragraph 12 of his Declaration, Mr. Deluge [the registrant] asserts that “[a]ny indication that [Respondent] may have been willing to transfer the Domain Name to Complainant was ill-advised due to my lack of understanding, the absence of legal counsel and has been withdrawn.â€
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