Davidson College loses cybersquatting dispute

College filed case against a man whose last name is Davidson.

Davidson College, a prestigious school in North Carolina, has lost a cybersquatting dispute it filed against the domain name davidson.one.

Dominic Davidson, a Fresh Zealand man, registered the domain name and others with his surname in them for his personal and business use.

The college was concerned regarding confusion with Davidson One, a platform for the school’s students and faculty. It uses the subdomain one.davidson.edu for the platform.

When an entity files a dispute under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, it typically does not know the identity of the registrant. The registrant’s identity is subsequently provided to the Complainant, which then has the option to withdraw or amend the complaint if the fresh information changes its case.

In this dispute, Davidson College proceeded with its original complaint even when it knew the domain was registered to someone with the last name Davidson. Its complaint falsely claimed that the registrant was not commonly known as Davidson.

Panelist Ivett Paulovics ruled that Dominic Davidson clearly has rights or legitimate interests in the domain and denied Davidson’s request to transfer it. Still, she did not consider whether this was a case of reverse domain name hijacking.