Company loses dispute for Unstoppable.com domain name.
Fiskars, a company you most likely know for its scissors, has a trademark on “Unstoppable”. But a Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) panel has ruled that its rights to the term are stoppable.
The company filed a cybersquatting complaint under UDRP against the owner of Unstoppable.com. Fiskars lost its case (pdf) despite the domain name owner not responding.
The panel ruled that Fiskars did not prove that the registrant of the domain name had registered and used it in bad faith. The company provided documentation of two trademarks, but those weren’t registered until 2012 and 2013. The panel pointed out that the domain was registered in 1999. It appears the current owner acquired it in 2010. Regardless, the company didn’t show use before the domain was registered.
Even if Fiskars did show rights predating the registration, the panel determined that the term “unstoppable” is generic. Therefore, just using the term “unstoppable” in the domain would not prove that the respondent was aware of the complainant’s rights.
The panel also pointed out that the respondent is in Malaysia and Fiskars did not provide any evidence of the mark’s fame in that country.
Fiskars should be ashamed for playing by dirty prison rules.
What a scummy company for trying to steal the domain, IMO.
I guess they are no better than a common thief…..in this case a domain thief.
They should have had a reverse domain hijacking charge leveled against them.
What a load of shit and a shitty company.
This isn’t the most Earth shattering finding, but I think it is an enormous victory for everyone that owns a ‘generic’ keyword domain and a big strike against using existence of a brand as a basis for filing a squatting complaint.
I don’t know if domainers are buying many axes, but I’ll never understand why companies of this size risk damaging their reputation and credibility just to save pocket money. Going the UDRP way for generic dictionary words…priceless.