Tries reverse domain name hijacking — College Fresh

Foodservice firm goes following a domain registered ahead of it existed.

College Fresh, a firm that provides food service to fraternities and sororities, has tried to reverse domain name hijack CollegeFresh.com, a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panelist has decided. The firm uses the domain CollegeFresh.net.

The firm was founded in 2010, but CollegeFresh.com was registered by the current owner in 2005. In other words, this case was dead on arrival since there was no way to show it was registered in bad faith to target the then-non-existent firm.

The Complainant was clearly misguided, as this statement in its complaint shows:

The domain name ought to be considered as having been registered in bad faith as the Respondent registered the domain name collegefresh.com on October 7, 2005, but as seen in the holding page provided as Annex 5 is not making a legitimate non-commercial or fair use, or in fact any use of any kind, of the domain name on the date of this Complaint.

As stated by the WIPO decision, the Complainant offered the domain owner $500 for the domain following filing the UDRP.

In finding reverse domain name hijacking, panelist Robert Badgley wrote:

The Panel concludes that Complainant has engaged in Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (“RDNH”). Indeed, this is a classic case of RDNH. Complainant, represented by counsel, filed this Complaint, which was doomed to fail since of the impossibility of Respondent having registered the Domain Name in bad faith five years ahead of Complainant and its trademark came into being. Following making an unsolicited offer to buy the Domain Name in 2016 and getting no response (a fact not discussed in the Complaint), Complainant eventually launched this baseless proceeding and required Respondent to hire counsel.

The law firm Meyer Capel represented College Fresh.