Wins Reverse Domain Name Hijacking Charge — Kevin Ham
Three member panel agrees that case was brought in bad faith.
Kevin Ham’s Vertical Axis, along with domain name lawyer Ari Goldberger, has successfully defended the domain name AdventureRV.com in a UDRP decision. The panel also found complainant CNRV, Inc. guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in bringing the case.
The three member panel was split on a number of issues, but all three found against CNRV on at least one section of the UDRP. All three also agreed that the case was filed in bad faith.
I found panelist Neil Anthony Brown’s reasoning for reverse domain name hijacking particular notable. In addition to noting that CNRV’s common law trademark was very weak, Brown noted:
Complainant’s disparaging allegations against Respondent (such as that Respondent relied on affidavits of “dubious credibilityâ€, that it conducted “reckless, perfunctory searches and that, in effect, it concealed unfavourable evidence) were made without evidence or argument to justify them.
I find that a lot of complainants throw in perfunctory language to try to make the respondent look nefarious. Apparently they think that such language will scare the panelist into thinking he couldn’t possibly find in favor of the respondent. It’s nice to see a panelist call someone out for that.
Incidentally, George Kirikos notes that the official logs for the case at National Arbitration Forum show that the domain ought to be transferred. The respondent needs to contact NAF to make sure this clerical error gets fixed. [UPDATE: NAF has fixed the error on its web site.]
