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.
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.”
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.
Wellsaid JR .