Gets another UDRP win, but this one is different. — John Berryhill

Berryhill represented complainant in latest case.

Domain name attorney John Berryhill won another UDRP case.

That’s nothing interesting, but this case is different from usual since he was representing the complainant, not the domain name owner. The details of the case are pretty interesting, too.

Berryhill represented Christian recording artist Carl Cartee for the domain name CarlCartee.com.

Cartee used to own the domain name and let it lapse. Someone else registered the domain name.

Now, normally it would be fine for someone to register an expired domain. Berryhill makes sure to point this out in the complaint. What’s not OK is how the registrant used the domain name. Here’s what the site looks like:

A site regarding the singer, right?

Look a little bit closer underneath the logo. It reads “Residential and Commercial Contractors in San Diego”.

If you scroll down the page past the initial information regarding the singer, you’ll find blog posts for “How to hire a mobile windshield replacement contractor”, “Why SEO And Local Search Is Notable For Businesses” and “Firms That Give Free Estimates For Leaky Faucet And Toilets”.

In other words, the buyer is trying to capitalize on the singer and the site’s previous SEO by trying to confuse internet users.

The complaint states: “the objective of re-registration is to pass off the site as a legitimate site belonging to Complainant in order to increase the search ranking of the other sites linked by the articles posted to the site” and “There is no question that Respondent’s deliberate appropriation of Complainant’s name, logo, likeness and original content for the purpose of exploiting Complainant’s goodwill, while obscuring his or her contact information, cannot have been done in good faith.”

The panel agreed.