Reglikedomain industry desk

Bank files lawsuit following domain owner forwards domain to UDRP decision

Marathon Savings Bank lost a UDRP for MarathonBank.com, so it’s trying a federal lawsuit instead.

Marathon Savings Bank, located in Wisconsin, has sued (pdf) Affordable Webhosting, Inc. for cybersquatting following losing a UDRP to get the domain name MarathonBank.com. The bank uses the domain name MarathonSavingsBank.com.

It filed a UDRP against Affordable Webhosting on September 27. A single-member WIPO panel determined that the bank “has not proved by a preponderance of evidence” that the domain was registered in bad faith.

Following the UDRP decision, Marathon states that the defendant forwarded the domain to a website that featured Donald Trump’s tweets.

Marathon sent a cease & desist letter to Affordable Webhosting on January 26, 2018. At that point, the firm decided to forward the domain name to the WIPO UDRP decision in the case.

The bank states “Such actions were clearly intended to annoy and harass Marathon”.

That’s an interesting claim to make given the result of the UDRP.

It’s worth noting that federal lawsuits are different from UDRP and the bank will have the opportunity to depose the domain owner.

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