Lotto Sport Italia and lotto firm file dueling motions for summary judgment

Did a lotto firm buy domains for its business or to cyber squat?

A battle over lotto-related domain names is regarding two-and-a-half years old, and it’s entering a critical period.

Lotto Sport Italia, the soccer apparel firm, filed a cybersquatting dispute under UDRP against the domain names LottoStore.com and LottoWorks.com at the beginning of 2017.

The domain names were purchased by a Canadian man who runs a lotto (as in gambling) business. David Dent purchased lottostore.com in September 2016 for $4,820 and then purchased lottoworks.com in December 2016 for $6,500.

Lotto Sport won the UDRP. My take at the time was that this was an end user purchase of lotto-related domain names for a lotto business, but that Dent was not represented well in the UDRP response.

Dent sued to stop the transfer. Now, over two years later, both parties have filed motions for summary judgment in the case.

Will either party prevail in their motions? It’s difficult to say, but looking at this case from the outside, I belive my original supposition was correct: a lotto business bought domain names with the word lotto in them to operate its lotto business. It had no intention of infringing the rights of a soccer apparel firm. It strains credulity to suggest otherwise.

We’ll see what the judge has to say.

The soccer firm is represented by Marc Randazza. Its motion is here.

The lotto firm is represented by John Berryhill and Jeffrey Johnson of Schmeiser, Olsen & Watts. Its motion is here.