Planitar Inc. tried to upgrade its domain name through a cybersquatting claim.
A company that helps real estate agents create floor plans tried to reverse hijack a domain name, a Canadian International Internet Dispute Resolution Centre (CIIDRC) panel has ruled (pdf).
Planitar Inc. offers a product called iGuide that helps agents generate floor plans and create virtual tours.
When it launched the iGuide brand, iGuide.com was already taken, so it was “forced to use variants of the domain (goiguide.com) in order to direct customers” to its website.
About a decade after launching, it filed a UDRP against the owner of the domain name it coveted.
There was a big problem the company needed to overcome: the domain was registered in 2002, well before its product existed.
It could have potentially overcome this issue; historical Whois records suggest the domain name might have been sold to the current owner after Planitar got its trademark. Planitar didn’t argue this, and the domain owner didn’t respond, so the ownership date isn’t clear.
Regardless, it was likely to lose the case. Panelist Ivett Paulovics noted:
…the Panel finds that the Domain Name is capable of being used for a variety of descriptive, informational, or generic purposes unrelated to the Complainant. On the present record, and in the absence of evidence showing that the Respondent’s registration or holding of the Domain Name was intended to target the Complainant’s trademark, the Panel is not persuaded that the Complainant has established a prima facie case that the Respondent lacks rights or legitimate interests in the Domain Name.
In other words, there are many potential users of this domain generic domain, and there’s no evidence that the registrant had Planitar in mind when he registered the domain.
It appears that Planitar fumbled the case from the start. Representing itself, its original complaint was not administratively compliant. It updated its case but still lacked evidence to support its arguments.
Paulovics ruled this was a case of reverse domain name hijacking, stating that Planitar filed the case as a substitute for commercial acquisition of a valuable domain name, rather than as a remedy against abusive registration.
The domain is listed on Afternic for $125,000.
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