Over Meth Lab Cleanup (and other Fun UDRPs) — Explosive Fight

I’ve finally found someone to clean up that meth lab in my basement.

Every once in a while I come across a pending domain name dispute under Uniform domain-name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) that makes me scratch my head in bewilderment.

Here’s one such case: Meth-LabCleanup.com. The case was just filed at National Arbitration Forum, so we don’t know who filed it yet. But there is an operating web site at MethLabCleanup.com, and the site at Meth-LabCleanup.com looks like a competitor. Still, convincing a panel of rights to “Meth Lab Cleanup” will be like buying a 48-pack of Sudafed from the pharmacist ever since the meth crackdown began.

In other recent UDRP cases, this stretch saw a number of complaints denied.

One interesting one was Meatery.com, filed by a German hotel firm that opened a restaurant called Meatery. It uses the web site Meatery.de It argued that, as an international firm, it really needed .com in addition to .de. It also argued it made up the term Meatery, even though the respondent (who has a meat distribution business) registered the domain name many years prior to the Meatery restaurant opening. I guess the respondent is a psychic butcher.

Another case in which the complainant failed was for SBB.com. This case was filed by The Swiss Federal Railways. Unfortunately, WIPO seems slow to post the actual written decision, so I’ll update you once it goes online.