This company should learn about autorenew.
A cybersquatting case over HudsonFurniture.com shows the dangers of poor domain name management, and perhaps some inconsistencies in how UDRP is applied.
Hudson’s Furniture Showroom, Inc. of Florida filed a UDRP against the domain name and lost.
Domain owner Boran Batur said he bought the domain with plans for a business called Hudson Furniture and Bedding, Inc. Batur says he acquired the domain in an expired domain auction last year for about $4,500.
It was the Complainant that let the domain expire. And it gets even more interesting. Although it doesn’t state it in the case, it turns out that the Complainant acquired this domain through a UDRP in 2013.
So it won a UDRP in 2013, got the domain, and then neglected to renew it. Then it filed another UDRP to get it back.
In the first UDRP, the panelist determined that Hudson’s Furniture Showroom has common law rights to the mark Hudson’s Furniture. In the second one, the panelist ruled that it didn’t show it had common law rights to the term.
Of course, it’s possible that Hudson’s Furniture submitted different evidence in each case. It used different attorneys. More likely, it’s because no one defended the 2013 case. In that case, the panelist noted that while Hudson’s Furniture didn’t provide any evidence of its advertising and sales data, the domain owner didn’t try to refute it.
A vast majority of domain name registrars use stealth, inconsistent UDRP notifications to prey on domain registrants, to steal names!
Farming registrants domain name portfolios to steal domains under the UDRP ruse is an industry failing.
BUT OF COURSE, YOU ALL KNOW THIS!