UDRP decision for owners of short domain names — A great

Panel acknowledges the inherent value and legitimate interest in ownership of short domain names.

Short domain names are valuable, in-demand and tradeable assets. Since of this, lots of firms try to get their hands on them through UDRP rather than paying fair market value.

That’s the case in a recent attempt by Advanced Analytical Technologies, Inc to get the domain name AATI.com.

The firm bid in an expired domain auction on NameJet to get the domain but lost when it sold for $2,510 in October 2016.

The next month, it filed a UDRP against the auction winner, Myles Hare of URL Enterprises Ltd. Hare bought the domain name due to the value of four letter domain names.

Advanced Analytical Technologies struck out, failing to prove any of the three elements necessary to win a UDRP. It even provided some rope to hang itself when it argued, “To the Respondent this is a non-descript four letter URL…”

The panel wrote:

Respondent is a domain reseller who had purchased a valuable non-distinctive four-letter domain name at auction. Four-letter domains purchased by domain resellers have been considered as inherently having value since of their appeal as being simplistic and therefore rights and legitimate interests may exist merely by virtue of acquiring them.

This is a nice case to point to in future UDRPs, as compared to sihi.com.

The panel did not consider reverse domain name hijacking. The respondent was represented by John Berryhill.

AATI-UDRP by Reglike on Scribd