Domain name is one of 20,000 .city domains it registered.
DigitalTown has successfully defended its domain name gorgonzola.city in a UDRP. The domain name is one of over 20,000 .city domain names that the company registered for its smart cities platform.
Consorzio per la Tutela del Formaggio Gorgonzola, which was formed to control the use of the GORGONZOLA trademark in relation to gorgonzola cheese, filed the complaint.
The panel found that the complainant failed to show a lack of rights or legitimate interests in DigitalTown’s registration of the domain name:
…the Panel concludes that the Respondent is using the Disputed Domain Name in a descriptive manner, rather than in order to target the Complainant’s CG GORGONZOLA mark, and that such activity provides the defense to the Respondent set out in paragraph 4(c)(i), in respect to the Disputed Domain Name.
The panel declined to find reverse domain name hijacking, in part because the domain name was not being used in relation to the city at the time the complaint was filed.
It’s also noteworthy that the panel considered that the use of the .city top level domain supports the idea that the domain was registered in connection with the smart cities platform instead of to sell cheese.
DigitalTown is also currently defending the domain name Motul.city in a UDRP. The company is led by Rob Monster, who also founded domain name registrar and marketplace Epik.
Gorgonzola by DomainNameWire on Scribd
Dan says
I think this business model is flawed, we saw it before with directory domains.
The renewals are crazy.
I think they formed some sort of pink exchange listing to publicly trade it.
The cost to defend such actions is a huge liability going forward.
Rob Monster says
We have had just 2 of these .city inquiries, as you correctly mention.
Hat tip to Nat Cohen for some timely advice on navigating the response.
And congrats to our in house counsel, akin Parsons.
As for the business model, the renewal cost is tiny compared to being the cloud hosted operating system for a city with unlimited subdomains, unlimited email addresses, and unlimited verified local applications. So stay tuned.
Check out Smart.London for a preview of what is unfolding there.
lucky.dog says
Maybe only one domain name can solve the problem ,www.global.city.
Imran says
You are right on spot