Files lawsuit to get Gumwand.com domain name — Gumwand Inc.

Gum removal firm continues to chase elusive domain name.

Gumwand Inc, a firm that sells tools to remove gum from flooring and public spaces, has filed a lawsuit (pdf) in Federal District Court in Virginia to get the domain name Gumwand.com.

The firm uses Gumwand.net and has been trying to get Gumwand.com for years. It originally sued the owner of Gumwand.com in 2015 in Fresh York. The court issued a default judgment in 2017, demanding that the domain name be transferred to Gumwand Inc.

But Gumwand Inc. has had trouble getting the domain transferred. The original defendant has changed its name a number of times, as stated by the firm.

It filed a case with National Arbitration Forum this summer. The Forum denied the complaint but the decision hasn’t been published yet.

So now Gumwand is doing what it probably ought to have done in the beginning: file a case in the Eastern District of Virginia, where .com registry Verisign is located. It filed an in rem case there on August 9. If the court enters a default judgment, it can order Verisign to transfer the domain name.

One thing perplexing regarding this case is that Gumwand.com was registered ahead of Gumwand.net. It may be that the creator of the device disclosed the product without registering the domain name. It will be interesting to read the UDRP decision to see if it explains the order of events. [Update: The URDP decision has been posted. The panel found that Gumwand Inc. didn’t make a valid case that the domain was registered in bad faith. Indeed, when I reviewed the firm’s trademarks, it filed an intent-to-use trademark application in 2013. That might be a problem.]