Denmark company tries to grab GetMore.com domain name at arbitration.
Picture this.
You own an online electronics store called GetMore.dk. After a few years you realize you probably should own GetMore.com as well. So you find out the owner of the domain has listed it for sale on Sedo. You try to negotiate but the owner wants too much. Who you gonna call? WIPO.
That’s what GetMore A/S, owner GetMore.dk did. It filed an arbitration case for GetMore.com. It lost the case.
The owner of the generic GetMore.com domain name registered it at about the same time that GetMore.dk was getting off the ground. Not only was the domain generic, but the registrant of GetMore.com lived halfway across the world in Korea. There’s no way GetMore.dk has established rights in “Get More” at the time, and certainly not worldwide rights. I’d argue it still hasn’t garnered those rights. GetMore.com, which was parked with Sedo, didn’t even contain ads for electronics.
The respondent asked the arbitrator to find GetMore.dk guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. For some reason the panelist didn’t address this claim.
The full decision is online here.
Johnny says
It’s a good decision in the sense the domain owners won, but still it’s ridiculous how some panelists ignore certain elements totally as if they don’t exist. These guys should have been held for reverse domain name hijacking.
The current domain state is getting out of hand in regards to both domain attacks and the panelists decisions.
Andrew Allemann says
Johnny – perhaps a lawyer can chime in, but isn’t it a requirement that the panel consider the claim of RDNH if it is made? It’s as if it conveniently forgot to review it.
DNoptimizers.com says
This guys are begining to get out of hand. One of these days, no domain name will be safe anymore without a trademark. If you have a pricy domain name, it is adviceable to rademark it.