It’s Booth’s second win in as many months.
Domain investor James Booth has fended off a cybersquatting claim on the domain name semify.ai.
SEO company Semify, LLC, which uses the domain name semify.com, filed the complaint.
A three-person World Intellectual Property Organization panel found in Booth’s favor and determined the domain should not be transferred.
The case wasn’t clear-cut for the panel, however. It wrote (pdf):
The exact match with the SEMIFY trademark, the chronology of the Complainant’s rights, the Respondent’s professional status, the absence of evidence of trademark screening, the marketplace categorization, and the substantial asking price weigh in the Complainant’s favour. Those circumstances must be weighed against the limited evidence regarding the extent of the SEMIFY mark’s reputation, the evidence of third-party uses of “Semify”, the Respondent’s established investment activities, the multi-domain name acquisition, its portfolio of similarly composed domain names, the generalized offer for sale, and the absence of any communication directed to the Complainant.
Having considered the evidence as a whole, the Panel finds that the Complainant narrowly fails to establish, on the balance of probabilities, that the Respondent knew of and targeted the Complainant or its SEMIFY trademark when acquiring the disputed domain name. Nor has the Complainant established that the Respondent acquired the disputed domain name primarily for the purpose of selling it to the Complainant or a competitor of the Complainant within the meaning of paragraph 4(b)(i) of the Policy.
Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren represented Semify, and Ankur Raheja of Cylaw Solutions represented Booth.
Raheja helped Booth defend another .ai domain in a decision released last month.
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