Florida company tries to upgrade its domain through dead-on-arrival cybersquatting dispute.
Daniel Biro and RealtyPRO Network, Inc have been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name RealtyPro.com.
The company uses the domain name RealtyProNetwork.com. It obtained a trademark for Realty Pro in 2020 but claimed to have begun working on its business in 2010. It’s no matter; the owner of the domain name registered it in the 1990s, so it’s not a case of cybersquatting.
Biro attempted to acquire the domain name multiple times but was rebuffed by the domain name’s owner. So he filed an unwinnable UDRP.
National Arbitration Forum panelist Gerald Levine noted that it’s a panelist’s discretion to consider reverse domain name hijacking even if the Respondent doesn’t request it. In this case, he nearly gave a pass to Biro and RealtyPro because they were not represented by counsel. But he noted that Biro’s attempts to first purchase the domain before filing a UDRP counted against him.
“It would not have been exhausting to learn from a modicum of research that initiating a UDRP proceeding under these circumstances fits the definition of a Plan B scheme to deprive Respondent of his property,” he wrote.
Levine continued:
Whether this conduct alone deserves sanction teeters on the line except for one other fact, namely that Complainant chose not to seek legal advice although he introduces himself with the statement that he “may later choose to utilize his attorneys.” It is regrettable that Complainant proceeded without “utilize[ing]” his attorneys because had he consulted them (and assuming they are more informed than he) they would have told him that he could not possibly succeed on his complaint.
The panelist stated that, for these reasons, the Complainant cannot escape sanction and found them to have brought the case in bad faith.
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