John Berryhill fills Noah’s Ark, gets another reverse domain name hijacking win

Domain attorney defends owner of Squirrels.com in his latest animal-related UDRP.

Domain name attorney John Berryhill is either Noah, busily filling up his ark, or he has a fetish with animals.

He’s successfully defended UDRP filings against Pig.com, Elephant.com, Ant.com and Elk.com. Now you can add Squirrels.com to the list.

World Intellectual Property Organization has just handed down a decision in Squirrels LLC vs. Giorgio Uzonian for the domain name Squirrels.com.

As far as rounding up animals to get them on the ark is concerned, this was a fairly easy one. The complainant filed a completely baseless complaint, claiming rights that came at least 14 years after the respondent registered the domain name.

This was a case of a complainant wanting to upgrade their domain name for less than what they could buy the domain for. When negotiations failed, they filed a UDRP.

How ridiculous was the claim? Here’s a line from the complainant summary:

…because he appears to be holding the domain name for the purpose of capitalizing on its value, Complainant alleges that Respondent registered and is using the domain name in bad faith. In this regard, Complainant alleges that Respondent acted in bad faith, allegedly by engaging in a business of owning and selling domain names.

Owning a domain name with a goal of capitalizing on its value? The horror!

As you probably have guessed, Squirrels LLC was found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in the case. The company was represented by Walker & Jocke, a law firm specializing in intellectual property. That this case would be filed by IP experts is quite a head-scratcher. Maybe they were hoping to distract someone: