Time to go ask for forgiveness.
A non-profit called Bible Study Fellowship based in San Antonio has lost a UDRP to get the domain name BSF.org. Maybe it didn’t pray hard enough, but now it will probably need to ask for forgiveness for some sins, too.
In this case the panel declined to find reverse domain name hijacking, but also wrote:
In the case at hand, the Panel finds that Complainant’s allegations have not been substantiated by relevant evidence and also the rationale in the Complaint has been developed with tenuous logic and supported by very little citation. Also, the lack of explanation on the generation of the web page displaying Bible links is not suggestive of a good faith behavior of Complainant.
So what was Bible Study Fellowship’s chief sin? It went to the parked page at BSF.org and proceeded to type in search terms related to bible study. It then captured screenshots and said the parked page was showing ads related to its supposed mark. It didn’t mention to the panel how it manufactured the bible related screenshots. Seems like a shady trick that the big guy upstairs wouldn’t approve of.
Ironically, the domain name is owned by Kevin Ham’s company. Ham is a devout Christian. Surely a nicer approach could have worked.
Jackson Walker, LLP respresented the complainant. Ari Goldberger represented Vertical Axis.
Josh says
Ham is a devout christian? Which kind…
You Know Me says
Quote: “You can never say enough about sin.”
Barney Fife
todaro says
seriously… one time i saw hamm trying to slink through the eye of a needle. hehehe
Dan Altman says
Complainants and counsel that engage in creating “infringing content” by their own searches should be barred from further UDRP proceedings. It is tantamount to fraud. Sadly, I’ve seen at least one federal judge fooled by that chicanery.
Ramiro Canales says
Amen to Kevin and Ari!
Steve M says
Always tougher to walk-the-walk than talk-the-talk.
Shame on whomever(whomevers if more than one person) at BSF authorized what amounts to bearing false witness against another.
jp says
The added expense of owning 3 character domains. If they are parked figure the costs of one UDRP per year per. If you own and park 100 of them then 1 court battle per year. I imagine this is at least a factor in the current NameJet 3 letter yard sale.granted these are all wild guestimates.