Virtual Point responds to StableTable.com UDRP with its own lawsuit.
Virtual Point, the company that runs the UDRP search and aggregation site UDRPSearch.com, has filed a federal lawsuit after being hit with a UDRP.
Hedera AB, a Swedish company, filed a UDRP (pdf) against the company’s domain name StableTable.com on December 4. Rather than just wait for the World Intellectual Property Organization determination, Virtual Point filed a lawsuit (pdf) in federal court seeking declaratory judgment and damages.
Virtual Point registered the StableTable.com domain name in 2007. It alleges that the defendant contacted it the following year stating that it was starting a new business and wanted to buy the domain name.
The defendant obviously didn’t end up buying the domain name from Virtual Point. Instead, it registered the Swedish country code domain name StableTable.se in 2009 to market its self-stabilizing tables.
Correspondence from Hedera’s attorney, as well as the UDRP filing, claims that the trademark and business originates from the late 1990s in South Africa. Yet when Hedera tried to purchase the domain name (or see if the domain would be “let go”) it wrote:
Hi,
We are looking for a new domain name for a planned new business and one that came up as an idea was StableTable as you are the registrars of this name but it doesn’t seem to be in use, we wonder if you are interested in letting it go?
The message Hedera sent seems to conflict with the facts its attorneys, Advokatbyrån Gulliksson AB, are now representing. At a minimum, the note sent about the domain name does not suggest that the sender was claiming any trademark rights in it.
Virtual Point is represented by Rodenbaugh Law.
Wire fraud.
The complainant’s attorney is also a UDRP panelist.
You wrote, “The complainant’s attorney is also a UDRP panelist.”
Is there not a conflict of interest situation there?
Ha! In response to the question of whether it is proper for UDRP panelists to represent parties in UDRP proceedings, influential UDRP panelist David Bernstein said, “I consider myself to be objective.”
It was a novel variant of what is known as The Epimenides Paradox.
After all, if you are of the opinion that you are objective, then you don’t have to worry about bias.
So the complainant’s attorney Susanne Lindeskog is also a UDRP panelist ? If they are using these tactics when representing their clients, what should we assume they are doing as a UDRP panelist ? Is their some routine “peer review” of panelist members work ?
Well, to be fair, both the complainant’s and the respondent’s lawyers are UDRP panelists (although I don’t believe Rodenbaugh has been a panelist with WIPO).
.. interested in letting it go?.. Oh I like this table and chair set here in your store.. are you interested in just letting it go?.. haha
These site names are in existence which are unaffiliated to the UDRP complainant:
STABLETABLES.COM
IWANTASTABLETABLE.COM
THESTABLESTABLECOMPANY.COM
STABLETABLE.ME
STABLETABLE.NET
STABLETABLE.ORG
STABLETABLE.BIZ
STABLETABLE.CO
STABLETABLE.CN
STABLETABLE.DE
STABLE-TABLE.DE
STABLETABLE.MOBI
STABLETABLEARMREST.COM
STABLETABLECARD.COM
STABLETABLEFEET.COM
STABLETABLEFOOT.COM
STABLETABLELEG.COM
STABLETABLEME.COM
STABLETABLEPRINCIPLE.COM
STABLETABLERECORDS.COM
STABLE-2-TABLE.COM
STABLE2TABLE.COM
STABLEASATABLE.COM
STABLEONTHETABLE.COM
STABLETHETABLE.COM
STABLETOSTABLE.COM
STABLE-TO-TABLE.COM
STABLETOTABLE.COM
STABLETOTABLECOOKBOOK.COM
STABLEYOURTABLE.COM
SUPERSTABLETABLE.COM
THESTABLETABLE.COM
TABLESTABLE.CO.UK
TABLESTABLE.CH
TABLESTABLE.BIZ
TABLESTABLE.COM
TABLESTABLES.COM
TABLETOSTABLE.COM
THETABLESTABLE.COM
UNSTABLESTABLES.COM
UNSTABLETABLE.COM
UNSTABLETABLEUPHOLSTERY.COM