Cybersquatting complaint successful in absence of response.
The owner of Areas.com has lost the domain name in a UDRP after failing to submit a response.
The complaint was brought by AREAS, S.A. of Barcelona, Spain. The company operates over 1,000 food and beverage outlets. The domain name owner, Andres Sanchez Garcia, lives in Sabadell, Spain.
AREAS, S.A. showed that the domain name was confusingly similar to a mark in which it has rights. It also made out a prima facie case that the domain name owner didn’t have rights or legitimate interests in the domain name. Without a response from the domain owner, this went in favor of the complainant.
Panelist Alejandro Touriño noted that failure to respond to the UDRP can be considered as evidence of registration in bad faith, citing a 2008 case that (sort of) came to that conclusion.
The panelist also said that, since the complainant operates in Spain and the domain owner is based there, the domain owner probably knew of the complainant.
Nat Cohen says
This is a bad one. 17 year old domain. No infringing use – no use at all in fact.
Panelist finds the lack of response itself to be bad faith, and lack of use to be bad faith.
“In accordance with prior UDRP decisions, the Panel finds that a failure to respond the Complaint can be evidence of bad faith.”
“In the present case, the following circumstances seem relevant in this respect: the Respondent has provided no evidence of any good faith use of the disputed domain name; the Respondent does not seem to have associated the disputed domain name with any web site or online presence at all.”
The UDRP was created to combat “clear cut” cybersquatting. Under the control of the IP organizations who operate, staff, and interpret the UDRP, the UDRP has become a mechanism for seizing generic domains coveted by brand owners.
This areas.com decision is a clear case of using the UDRP to legitimize and to enable the theft of a domain name.
Steve says
110% Accurate.
“Panelist Alejandro Touriño noted that failure to respond to the UDRP can be considered as evidence of registration in bad faith, citing a 2008 case that (sort of) came to that conclusion.”
Grasping for straws. 🙁 pathetic system.
Everyone might as well go and file udrp’s on every decent name. The odds are the system will give them to you.