GoDaddy Gets Split Decision in Domain Dispute

GoDaddy wins one domain name, loses two others in UDRP.

An arbitrator has handed down a split decision in a domain dispute brought by GoDaddy.com at World Intellectual Property Organization.

As Domain Name Wire reported back in February, Go Daddy filed four UDRPs at WIPO for a number of domains covered by its trademarks. The most interesting case was against Domainsnext.com, a domain reseller. The dispute involved gotodaddy.com, gotodaddynot.com and gotodaddynot.net.

The first domain forwarded to the respondent’s domain registration web site; the latter two pointed to a web site critical of GoDaddy’s marketing practices. The panel decided that the latter two domain names were protected as gripe sites and thus not registered and used in bad faith according to UDRP guidelines. The panel cited GoDaddy’s admission that another site owned by the respondent was left off the case because it was protected as fair use. The panelist believed the excluded domain was similar to gotodaddynot.com and gotodaddynot.net. But he ruled that GoToDaddy.com has to be handed over.

As for the other UDRP arbitration requests filed by GoDaddy, it won the case for websitetonight.net while convincing the owners of odady.com and bigdaddyhostingco.com to hand their domains over.