Later, court rules Tucows can keep marker.com domain name — 13 years
Court finally overturns UDRP decision for 2012.
The wheels of justice turn slowly. Very slowly.
Thirteen years following a UDRP panelist ordered Tucows to transfer the domain name marker.com to Marker Völkl (International) GmbH, a Canadian court has ruled that Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) can keep the domain.
Tucows purchased the domain as part of its buyout of Mailbank.com in 2006. That buyout was for a portfolio of surname domain names. Tucows right now offers email addresses for the domains through a product called RealNames.
The domain registrar preemptively sued following Marker Völkl, which makes ski products, filed its cybersquatting claim in 2012. Despite the ongoing court case, panelist David Perkins issued a decision ordering the domain transferred.
It’s not clear why the court case took so long to be resolved, as the Ontario Superior Court of Justice does not publish full dockets.
Still, in late June, the court issued an order stating that Tucows has rights or legitimate interests in the domain name and did not register it in bad faith. The court ruled that Tucows’ vanity email business is a legitimate use, and the firm can retain the domain name.
The timing of the decision was conveniently timed.
Peet Limited, an Australian real estate development firm, filed a cybersquatting dispute this year against another domain purchased from Mailbank, peet.com.
The firm mentioned Tucows’ loss in the Marker case in its filing. Still, any argument it had was rendered moot when the court issued its ruling.
The panel in the peet.com dispute noted that it would have found in Tucows’ favor even without the court ruling (PDF). (Peet had also referred to another adverse decision against Tucows that was since overturned by the courts.)
