Guy starts company in 2011, files UDRP against domain registered in 1999.
Sigh.
Another day, another completely baseless UDRP.
This one comes courtesy of WowWe, Inc., which was represented by the law firm Lewis & Barnes.
WowWe began using its mark in 2011. The owner of WowWe.com registered the domain name in 1999.
Yet, amazingly, WowWe argued that the disputed domain name was registered for the purpose of selling the domain name registration to it for valuable consideration in excess of Respondent’s out-of-pocket costs.
Can someone explain this to me? How did someone who registered this domain name in 1999 have the foresight to predict that a company in Texas would start up using the WowWe name over a decade later?
WowWe also argued that the domain owner did something wrong by registering domain names such as MovieStar.org:
“Complainant believes such websites exist only to produce advertising revenues by attracting consumers at the expense of legitimate businesses with similar names.”
Yes, the respondent has clearly targeted the Movie Star business with this registration.
After making offers of several thousand dollars to obtain the domain name, WowWe filed a UDRP.
The respondent didn’t ask for a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking, but the panel should have considered it anyway.
bhartzer says
Most likely the respondent didn’t even know that reverse domain name hijacking even exists. Many don’t know about it.
Andrew Allemann says
I agree.
Kassey says
A funny and money-wasting UDRP case. Thanks Andrew for this story.