The insurance giant really wants this domain name.
Earlier this year, insurance giant State Farm lost a UDRP for the domain name TheStateFarmBowl .com.
The owner of the domain argued that he bought it to sell wooden bowls in the outline of states. Get it? State ‘farm bowls’? (His plans seem to have been delayed because he still hasn’t developed the site.)
This loss came on the heels of losing a similar case for the domain BigStateFarmAgent .com because it could be read is ‘big state’ ‘farm agent’.
State Farm was miffed at losing the seemingly football-themed TheStateFarmBowl .com domain to go along with its defensively-registered StateFarmBowl.com. So it filed a second time with National Arbitration Forum to get the domain.
There are limited cases in which a company can file a UDRP a second time. According to the WIPO Jurisprudential Overview 3.0:
Panels have accepted refiled complaints only in highly limited circumstances such as (i) when the complainant establishes that legally relevant developments have occurred since the original UDRP decision, (ii) a breach of natural justice or of due process has objectively occurred, (iii) where serious misconduct in the original case (such as perjured evidence) that influenced the outcome is subsequently identified, (iv) where new material evidence that was reasonably unavailable to the complainant during the original case is presented, or (v) where the case has previously been decided (including termination orders) expressly on a “without prejudice” basis.
For example, had the owner of the domain started selling insurance, then State Farm might have a legitimate reason to refile. But none of the exceptional circumstances applied here, so the panelist declined to render a new decision.
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