Firm files UDRP following making $103,750 offer for domain name

Panel rules no-code firm Glide failed case in bad faith.

No-code app building firm typeguard, inc. dba Glide, has been found (pdf) to have tried reverse hijacking the domain name glide.ai. The firm uses the domain GlideApps.com for its website.

In March this year, Glide made a $103,750 offer for the domain through a GoDaddy broker. It stated that it hoped the domain owner would counteroffer to begin negotiations.

But the domain owner, Narendra Ghimire, did not counter.

A month later, Glide filed a UDRP case with World Intellectual Property Organization.

It’s a classic “Plan B” case of reverse domain name hijacking.

The firm was internally represented, and it shows in the arguments it made.

For example, it listed many cases in which the respondent had previously been named but failed to mention that the respondent won most of those cases.

It even nominated two WIPO panelists to serve on the panel that had previously found in the respondent’s favor in other cases.

In finding reverse domain name hijacking, the panel noted that the complainant failed to show that it had a well-known trademark at the time the domain was purchased. It also called it out for failing to disclose the outcomes of the complaints it cited against the respondent.

The panel wrote:

Complainant by its own characterization initiated the proceeding since it believed it had a more compelling use for the disputed domain name than Respondent. The UDRP requires more than that: an actual assessment of Respondent’s probable bad faith given the known circumstances.

John Berryhill represented the domain owner.