French bank tries to reverse hijack another four letter domain

Bank tried to reverse hijack one of GoDaddy’s domain names, shortly after another RDNH finding for a four letter domain.

A French financial institution tried to reverse hijack a four letter .com domain name, a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panel has found (pdf). It’s the second time the bank has tried to reverse hijack a four letter domain name.

This case was against GoDaddy’s NameFind business and the domain bpvf.com.

In December, a prior WIPO panel found that it tried to reverse hijack vdft.com. The bank claimed the domain was cybersquatting on its credit product, Val de France Transactions.

Like in the previous decision, the three-person WIPO panel in bpvf.com found that the domain was not confusingly similar to a mark in which the bank has rights. Just because the initials of its name are BPVF doesn’t mean it has a trademark for it.

The panel also seemed miffed that the bank insinuated that it uses bpvf.fr for its website, when it merely forwards the domain to its full domain name.

In finding reverse domain name hijacking, the panel wrote:

The Panel is willing to accept that the Complainant strongly and in good faith believes in the reputation that its BANQUE POPULAIRE VAL DE FRANCE trademark undisputedly enjoys and so attempts to transfer such reputation to the trademark’s acronym “bpvf”, which, however, is unjustified for the reasons set out above under Section 6.B. Despite such good faith belief, still, the Complainant must have been aware of the fact that it had little chance to successfully bring this UDRP complaint; in particular, the documentation submitted by the Complainant itself demonstrates that there is no serious commercial use by the Complainant of the acronym “bpvf” to form a basis for a UDRP proceeding; also, the Complainant was legally represented in these proceedings, which rather increases than reduces the requirements for a complaint to have been submitted on a solid basis only and so in good faith.

SELARL JB avocat represented Banque Populaire, and Gerald Levine represented NameFind.