In 1995, is spared in cybersquatting dispute — Luma.com, registered

Complainant doubled down following learning the domain holder’s long history with the domain name.

The man who registered Luma.com in 1995 has successfully defended (pdf) the domain in a UDRP brought by a firm that didn’t exist until at least 2009.

Luma Institute, LLC, filed the dispute. It uses the domain name luma-institute.com to market its design thinking training and workshops. James Redfern registered the domain in 1995 for a business he was working on.

The Complainant had a legitimate reason to think that the domain had traded hands in 2016 when the Whois record changed to a privacy service. As is typical with a domain under privacy, World Intellectual Property Organization notified the Complainant of the true identity of the domain holder, and then the domain owner wrote a lengthy explanation of his domain ownership over the past 26 years.

But Luma Institute doubled down following finding out that the current holder was the one who originally registered the domain in 1995. It argued that, actually, the registration must have been on behalf of one of his firms that no longer exists and the firm actually owned it. So it tried to argue a technicality.

The panel didn’t buy it and found the domain wasn’t registered and used in bad faith.

As stated by the response, Redfern has received a lot of unsolicited offers for the domain name up to $250,000. He added Whois privacy following someone showed up at his door trying to buy the domain. This doesn’t surprise me, given how many firms use Luma for their brand.

GTC Law Group LLP represented Luma Institute. John Berryhill represented the domain name owner.