Coinbase successfully defends domain name in cybersquatting dispute

A French payments firm took issue with the cryptocurrency trading platform registering CB.markets.

Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase has successfully defended the domain name CB.markets in a cybersquatting dispute.

French payments company Groupement des cartes bancaires filed the complaint under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) at World Intellectual Property Organization.

The payments company offers services under the CB mark.

However, CB is clearly short for Coinbase and it makes sense for the company to register the domain. The WIPO panelist found that Coinbase had a legitimate interest in the domain name and did not register it in bad faith.

Panelist Warwick Rothnie declined to find that the case was reverse domain name hijacking, however. He noted that Coinbase was not publicly using the domain name. There was also a “for sale” message on the Whois record at DomainTools for the domain that leads to Sedo.

Coinbase is the initial registrant of the domain name. So this means Sedo’s listing was either generated in partnership with the .markets registry or someone added the domain to Sedo that didn’t own it.