Lose Two Cases to Serial Cybersquatter in One Week — Lazy Complainants

If domain name is registered ahead of a trademark is filed, complainants need to provide good evidence of common law rights.

So you’re legal counsel for a firm that feels that someone is cybersquatting on your trademark. That someone is “Purple Bucquet” of Panama, which has lost twenty-six UDRP cases since April 2010 to firms as big as Wells Fargo and Intuit.

You file a UDRP for the domain name and Purple Bucquet doesn’t even bother responding, yet you lose.

Believe it or not, this exact scenario has played out twice within two days the prior week.

On December 31 a National Arbitration Forum ruled against broadcast firm Pidela Holdings Inc for the domain name Rumberanetwork.com, owned by Purple Bucquet. On January 1, a Czech Arbitration Court panel found against a Denmark firm for the domain name Hurtta.com, also owned by Purple Bucquet.

In both cases the complainants had trademarks for the domains but they were filed following the respondent registered the domain names.

You can still win a UDRP as a complainant if you file for a trademark following a domain name is registered. You just need to prove common law rights to the mark prior to the domain name registration. In both of these cases, the complainants failed to provide even a minimum amount of information to sway the panels. They phoned it in and failed.