Obero tries to Reverse Domain Name Hijack domain name — Canadian firm

Firm filed cybersquatting claim against domain name that was registered ahead of the firm existed.

Obero, Inc., a Corporate Performance Management (CPM) and business analytics firm based in Ontario, Canada, has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name Obero.com.

The firm, which uses the domain names OberoSolutions.com and OberoSPM.com, filed a cybersquatting complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against the owner of Obero.com.

WIPO panelist Christopher J. Pibus called the complaint “fatally flawed.” Obero was formed in 2010. It claimed a first use date of 2010 in its 2016 trademark filing. But the owner of the domain name registered it in 2008, so it was impossible that it was registered to target the complainant.

Pibus wrote, “The Complaint has filed a pro forma complaint, which is entirely bereft of substantive evidence aside from the existence of its Canadian trademark registration for OBERO.”

In finding reverse domain name hijacking, he wrote:

On its face, this Complaint was fatally flawed, due to the absence of trademark rights in the hands of the Complainant at the relevant date.

The Complainant ought to have noticed that the Respondent’s registration of the disputed domain name pre-dated the Complainant’s registered trademark rights by eight years. If the Complainant had done even a cursory investigation it would have determined that its Complaint was without proper foundation…

…The Panel finds that the Complainant’s conduct constitutes an abuse of this administrative proceeding, and that this Complaint has engaged in the act of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking under the Policy.

Obero, Inc was internally represented and domain name attorney Zak Muscovitch represented the domain name owner.