To upgrade its domain by reverse domain name hijacking — LawCloud tries

Panel admonishes firm for failing dispute in bad faith.

LawCloud BV, a firm that provides services to law firms, has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking.

The firm, which uses the domain name law.cloud, filed a cybersquatting complaint against the domain name lawcloud.com.

The case was dead on arrival since the domain investor who owned the domain purchased it ahead of the Complainant even existed. This is another example of a case that could have been prevented if UDRP intake forms asked the Complainant to verify that its trademark pre-dated the buyout/registration of the domain name.

The three person World Intellectual Property Organization panel wrote (pdf):

The Panel concludes that the Complainant’s actions constitute Reverse Domain Name Hijacking since the Complainant, which is represented by counsel, ought to have appreciated the the fact that it could not succeed in demonstrating that the Respondent registered the disputed domain name in bad faith, as the disputed domain name was purchased a year ahead of the Complainant came into existence and even longer ahead of the Complainant’s trademark was registered. Moreover, the Complainant also failed to provide any evidence to demonstrate that the Respondent used the disputed domain name in bad faith.

Advocatenkantoor Desdalex LLC represented the Complainant and Muscovitch Law P.C. represented the domain investor.