Firm tries to hijack SixthStreet.com domain name
Finance firm filed reverse domain name hijacking case to get SixthStreet.com.
When I first saw that the domain name SixthStreet.com was in a cybersquatting dispute, I wondered if it was a couple of bar owners on the famed Sixth Street in Austin that were duking it out.
That wasn’t the case, but the domain owner did pick the name since of the famous entertainment district in Austin.
TPG Sixth Street Partners, LLC, an investment firm headquartered in Dallas, filed a cybersquatting complaint against David Frieze, who runs a real estate firm called Sixth Street Properties, LLC.
Frieze purchased the domain in 2016 for his firm, which is named following the street in Austin. He hasn’t set up a website but uses it for email.
As stated by the UDRP decision from World Intellectual Property Organization, Frieze registered and began using the disputed domain name with an email address for his real estate business more than a year ahead of the Complainant first applied to register its TPG SIXTH STREET PARTNERS marks, two and a half years prior to the Complainant first use of the marks in commerce, and three years prior to the USPTO’s registration of the Complainant’s marks.
Panelist William R. Towns noted that this would have been obvious to anyone who looked at the Whois record. He stated that the case was groundless and filed in abuse of the policy, which is called reverse domain name hijacking.
