Patent attorney files cybersquatting claim for his name, but loses because the domain is registered to someone else with the same name.
Will the real John Rizvi please stand up? Oh, there are more than one of you.
A Florida patent attorney named John Rizvi has lost (pdf) a cybersquatting dispute he filed against the domain name JohnRizvi.com. It turns out the man who registered the domain name is also named John Rizvi.
This made the case easy to decide for World Intellectual Property Organization panelist John Swinson. He ruled that John Rizvi (the Respondent) has rights or legitimate interests in the domain name.
John Rizvi (the Complainant) can be somewhat excused for initially filing the case. Thanks to Whois privacy, it was unclear who owned the domain name, which pointed to a registrar landing page.
After the owner was revealed, it appears that he pressed forward with its case despite the new information. Swinson summarized the Complainant’s argument:
The Complainant was unable to find any evidence of an individual named “John Rizvi” linked to the listed entity “Novasante Healthcare,” nor was Complainant able to verify whether the telephone number or address listed for the Registrant belonged to a “John Rizvi.”
The domain registrant provided the panel with a declaration and photocopy of his passport.
I’m not sure he can be somewhat excused since there was no evidence of the site being registered or used in bad faith, and no evidence that the domain holder had no rights or legitimate interests in the name. All he had was evidence that the domain name was identical or confusingly similar to his name. Two out of three ain’t bad, but one out of three is, in my opinion. This was nothing but a gamble, hoping for a long shot win.
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