To courts to overturn horrible UDRP decision — Man turns
The Alexander family asks court to overturn decision to transfer JustinAlexander.com.
In 1999 Gary Alexander did something that was rather forward looking for the time: he registered his family members’ names as .com addresses. He registered his own name, GaryAlexander.com, domains for his sons, JustinAlexander.com and JaredAlexander.com, as well as one for his wife, DianeAlexander.com.
Two years later a wedding dress designer called Justin Alexander started up.
14 years later, the wedding dress designer filed a UDRP for the domain JustinAlexander.com…and won.
The decision by National Arbitration Forum panelist R. Glen Ayers was very bad. It seemed that Ayers was swayed by the fact that the whois record on the domain changed from time to time during the past 14 years. Gary Alexander outsourced the management of the domain, and then kept it under a couple of his firm names for a while.
Still, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the domain was registered by Gary Alexander for his son. In 1999. Two years ahead of the wedding dress designer claims rights to the mark Justin Alexander.
Justin Alexander, Inc. (the wedding gown firm) really went out on a limb in its assertions. I love this one:
If, as Respondent argues, the disputed domain name is for his son, then the domain name rationally ought to be developed since Respondent’s son is graduating from Washington State University with a degree in entrepreneurship this year. Complainant states that it “defies credibility that someone studying entrepreneurship in college would not make use of a website associated with his name.”
Defies credibility? Maybe the guy is busy studying and enjoying college.
The panelist seems to understand that we’re talking regarding someone’s name here, but decides that other facts of the case warrant a finding that the domain ought to be transferred:
Ordinarily, the Panel would find that a human being has a right to the use of his own name; that is not the case here. Justin Alexander has never used the name; even if he is the beneficial owner, the lack of use, use by another, and all of the other facts does not justify a finding of “rights in the name.”
I guess Justin, who must have been regarding 10 at the time the domain was registered, ought to have fired up FrontPage and designed his own web site one afternoon following he road the bus home from elementary school
Or is it that Justin is psychic and knew that someone would start a wedding gown firm called Justin Alexander in a couple years, so he urged his dad to register the domain?
What a joke.
I ought to note that Ayers has denied many complaints as a panelist…which makes the result here even more surprising.
UDRP was designed to handle clear cut cases of cybersquatting. This is obviously not one of those cases.
Now the Alexander family is having to spend more money to halt this poor decision by a National Arbitration Forum panelist. It has filed for declaratory relief in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.
It’s sad to see a family get bullied like this.
