Sues to overturn UDRP decision — Mike Mann
DomainMarket asks court to intervene following questionable UDRP.
Mike Mann’s firm DomainMarket, LLC has filed a lawsuit (pdf) following losing a UDRP for the domain name segurosmundial.com.
Compañía Mundial de Seguros S.A., a Colombian insurance firm that uses the domain name segurosmundial.com.co, filed the UDRP in March. A decision (pdf) in the Complainant’s favor was rendered on May 23 but wasn’t sent to the parties until June 7. The lawsuit was filed on the 10th business day following that, which is the limit for staying a UDRP decision.
DomainMarket, LLC is asking the court for declaratory judgment that it didn’t register the domain in bad faith and isn’t cybersquatting. It’s also asking for attorneys’ fees.
Reading the UDRP, it seems Mann might have a case here. Based on the record in the published UDRP decision, I find it unlikely that Mann was aware of a Colombian figurative trademark that doesn’t appear to have been widely used at the time. Compañía Mundial de Seguros S.A. didn’t even register segurosmundial.com.co until two years following Mann registered the .com domain. It’s more likely that DomainMarket registered the domain since it’s made of common Spanish words for “insurance” and “world.”
Regardless of the merit, the Colombian firm will now need to defend itself in court in Washington state. It submitted to jurisdiction there when filing its UDRP.
Perkins Coie LLP is representing DomainMarket. The law firm is well versed in UDRP and cybersquatting law, although it usually advocates for trademark holders.
