Tambour Ltd filed complaint that was “bound to fail”

Paint company files abusive cybersquatting complaint.

An Israeli paint company has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name Tambour.com. Tambour is a dictionary word in French that means ‘drum’.

Tambour Ltd uses the domain name Tambour.co.il.

The paint company reached out to the owner of the domain name and the registrant indicated he’d sell the domain name for $20,000. The valuation was based on the dictionary meaning of the word.

According to the written decision by the three-member World Intellectual Property Organization panel, the Complainant also indicated in its inquiry to the registrant that it had previously owned the domain. The respondent challenges this assertion.

The panel wrote:

…Had the Complainant acted diligently, it would have taken into account the lack of supporting evidence and the obvious potential defense that “tambour” is a dictionary word when deciding whether to file a complaint under the Policy against the Respondent. The Complainant is represented by counsel who must be taken to have studied to some degree the basic elements of the WIPO Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions, and this is probably true since the Complaint includes references to this Overview. The Complainant’s counsel must have understood that the Complaint was bound to fail given the absence of any evidence to indicate bad faith on the part of the Respondent, but the Complainant was nevertheless filed after the unsuccessful attempt of the Complainant to acquire the disputed domain name.

Preminger & Co represented the Complainant. John Berryhill represented the domain owner.