This really shouldn’t be that confusing of an issue.
The bar has just been lowered for showing confusing similarity in UDRP decisions, courtesy of a decision at National Arbitration Forum.
At issue are the domain names MyBizHomepage.com and MyBizDashboard.com. The complainant in the case, MBO Partners, Inc, operates MyBizOffice.com and has a trademark for “MyBizOffice”. Note that MBO Partners does not have a trademark for “MyBiz”, which is a very common and generic term.
Yet National Arbitration Forum panelist Tyrus R. Atkinson, Jr found a way to say that the respondent’s domain names were confusingly similar to MBO Partners’ mark:
Complainant contends that Respondent’s use of the “mybiz†portion of Complainant’s mark with the generic terms “homepage†or “dashboard†does not render the disputed domain names distinct from Complainant’s mark. Complainant also notes that the addition of the generic top-level domain (“gTLDâ€) “com†does not distinguish the disputed domain names from Complainant’s mark. Complainant produces evidence to show that the terms “homepage†and “dashboard†are associated in some ways with the term “office.†The addition of the terms “homepage†and “dashboard†to the disputed domain names does not prevent the domain names from being confusingly similar to Complainant’s mark
Wow.
Fortunately, the respondent MyBizHomepage, Inc. showed that it has rights and legitimate interests in mybizhomepage.com, which it has been operating for several years. It also proved that it didn’t register mybizdashboard.com in bad faith. MBO Partners lost the case.
Attila says
I really want to know what goes through the minds of such companies when they pursue such a weak case.
-Looking for a free domain?
-Put a competitor out of business?
Which is it?
Henry says
Could it be because they know some of these Arbitration companies and the arbitrators are demented in their ways and frame of mind?
Northern VA says
They wanted to knock them out after they applied for a TM.
They knew the one company was small and the complainant was much larger so they wanted to bully them.
When the C&D didn’t work, they were arrogant enough to think they might win with a UDRP.
Joey Starkey says
Should go after reverse hijacking.