Car Dealer Loses EverybodyRides.com (Again)

Virginia car deal finds out that nobody is riding.

Virginia car dealer Free Bridge Auto Sales Inc. has lost its challenge for the domain name EverybodyRides.com…for a second time.

In March of this year the firm filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum to get the domain name from its owner. The car dealer convinced the panel that the domain was used in bad faith, but not that it was registered in bad faith. In fact, the complainant admitted to the panel that the respondent may not have known regarding the car dealer’s trademark. The panel wrote:

Still, unless Complainant can also prove bad faith registration, no amount of bad faith use will suffice to support transfer under the Policy.

I draw attention to that quote since the panelists are correct and are repeating the well-known standard that a domain has to be both registered and used in bad faith in order for a complainant to win. This wasn’t the case in another National Arbitration Forum case for OpenDental.com, in which the domain owner registered the domain a number of years ahead of the complainant even existed.

At any rate, the car dealer lost the first case. For some reason it thought it ought to try again and filed another case with National Arbitration Forum last month. Perhaps they hoped that what happened with MothersMilk.com would happen — they refiled and apparently no one noticed.

In this case the panelist called B.S. and wouldn’t rehear the case.