Prolific panelist makes the right finding (this time).
National Arbitration Forum panelist Carolyn Marks Johnson is no friend of domain name owners. An early study of arbitrators found that she was one of the most prolific and biased, finding for complainants 97.2% of the time (compared to the typical 82.9% at the time). She was also recently sued for alleged judicial misconduct.
But she managed to find for the respondent on NMC.com, despite the respondent not filing a response to a case brought by Nebraska Machinery Company.
Mind you, it was pretty straightforward. NMC.com was registered in 1998, and Nebraska Machinery Company didn’t start using the NMC mark until 2007. I can’t help but wonder “if NMC had started using the mark prior to 1998, would she have handed the domain over even though it’s a generic three letter mark?”
After all, she found in favor of the complainant for Freebie.com, even though the respondent owned a company called Freebie, Inc. that used the web site for a “points site” for Blockbuster Video. That decision found its way to court, where two separate courts found that the UDRP was flat out wrong. The first court decided that the UDRP was “unsupported by the evidence” and should be reversed. An appeals court agreed.
She was also the arbitrator on the recent MothersMilk.com case. She was the second arbitrator to hear what amounts to basically the same case. The first arbitrator ruled in favor of the respondent; Johnson found in favor of the complainant.
But I guess I shouldn’t complain in this case. Regardless of the rationale, the end result is correct.
so here we have an arbitrator that was flat out wrong. and then it cost the respondant for 2 court cases to correct this arbitrator.
and the arbitrator is still employed. the respondand had to come out of pocket to file these 2 lawsuits when unemplyment is at 26 yr high. this is why domainers need to level any any legal representative that hurts domainers…as i stated many times before we are not here to support a legal system that charges $300 an hour for legal work that is only worth $50 an hour.this is why domainers need to perform their own legal work and level any oppostion that is flat out wrong.
and for 10 dollars and a trademark.sucks levels and straighens out any billion dollar corporation or legal representative…..
You see i would object to her being the panelist.