UK company filed a UDRP against valuable dictionary word domain.
A domain investor who acquired caribou.com for $91,482 has successfully defended the domain in a UDRP.
Scott Dylan, a shareholder in UK delivery and logistics company Caribou, filed the complaint. The company uses the domain WeAreCaribou.com.
The domain investor, K-Ventures FZE LLC, owns a number of animal domain names, including beluga.com, hippopotamus.com, iguana.com, raccoon.com, scampi.com and wapiti.com. It acquired caribou.com in 2019.
A domain broker representing K-Ventures reached out to the Complainant’s company earlier this year. At the same time, the broker contacted a bioscience company named Caribou that went public and one other company with the same name.
This apparently triggered the Complainant’s interest and subsequent UDRP filing.
The three-person World Intellectual Property Organization panel found that the domain wasn’t registered and used in bad faith. It did not consider reverse domain name hijacking.
Sheridans, a media and technology law firm, represented the Complainant. Zak Muscovitch of Muscovitch Law P.C. represented the domain owner.
John Berryhill says
This is the third reported UDRP this year in which Sheridans represented a complainant. They lost every one of them and were called out for RDNH in one of them.
https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2021-2977
“The Complainant is Kasko Ltd, United Kingdom, represented by Sheridans, United Kingdom.
…
For the foregoing reasons, the Complaint is denied.”
https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2021-0886
“The Complainant is Reboxed Limited, United Kingdom (“UK”), represented by Sheridans, UK.
…
For the foregoing reasons, the Complaint is denied.
The Panel finds that the Complaint was brought in bad faith and constitutes an abuse of the administrative proceeding.”
https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2021-1078
“The Complainant is Kasko Ltd, United Kingdom, represented by Sheridans, United Kingdom.
…
For the foregoing reasons, the Complaint is denied.”
J.R. says
Its a dicey proposition to outbound a premium EMD dot-Com to a trademark holder. Like PPC parking, outbound solicitations too often lead to UDRP conflicts.
Caribou(.)com should never be out-bounded to TM holders – they’ll come to you. Add a lander to notify the public URL is for sale and sit back until a retirement like offer is submitted.
Emeka says
Wellsaid JR .