Company didn’t withdraw complaint after it was apparent the domain was owned by someone with the surname of the domain.
A World Intellectual Property Organization panelist has found Machani Infra Development Corporation Private Limited to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking.
The company filed a UDRP complaint against Machani.com and failed to convince the panel of any of the three prongs required to win a cybersquatting dispute.
Most damning was that the domain name owner’s last name is Machani. While it’s plausible that the Complainant didn’t know this when it filed its dispute, it didn’t withdraw the case after finding out this information. Instead, it doubled down by trying to submit a supplemental filing that did not dispute the evidence about the family name of the Respondent but started with the statement that “The Respondent has not disputed or denied any of the submissions and contentions made in the complaint and is, therefore, deemed to have accepted the submissions and contentions made in the complaint”.
The panelist also found that the Complainant made inflated claims about trademark rights in the term Machani. In any event, the supporting evidence it submitted to purported common law rights post-dated the domain registration.
IndusLaw represented the Complainant, and Ankur Raheja of Cylaw Solutions represented the domain owner. This is the second reverse domain name hijacking finding Cylaw has won that was published today.
RDNH is a JOKE.. It is the number 1 weakest part of domains as IP. ICANN needs to fix this otherwise others will continue to try and STEAL assets from owners using this process. With no fine or sting if you lose, companies and people will continue to abuse the system and try and gain control over valuable IP assets through the system and approach.. RDNH needs a stiff fine or something sooner then later.. What will it take for ICANN to wake up and do something about domain theft using WIPO processes.? I’m curious, what does ICANN actually do again with a $60 million plus yearly budget? Oh ya, I forgot, they take $25 million in funds to raise the .com pricing.. DO SOMETHING ICANN please about domain theft using WIPO disputes.
Thanks to DNW and Andrew for bringing this to our notice.
Aankur Raheja of Cylaw Solutions is a genius, I have worked with Cylaw for more than 5 years on various issues related to domain name disputes and Aankur has never let me down.. I am not surprised!! Congratulations Aankur 🙂
Thanks Shiv for your kind words 🙂