In ISO.mobi Domain Arbitration — NamePros Cited

Content on popular domain forum cited as evidence of bad faith.

Domain name forum NamePros was cited in the recently decided arbitration case for ISO.mobi at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

As stated by the complainant, International Organization for Standardization ISO, the owner of ISO.mobi offered some of ISO’s other trademarks in domain names for sale:

An offer to sell the disputed domain name was made on the website “www.namepros.com”. While the disputed domain name was not actually listed, other potential domain names counting Complainant’s mark were listed and the text immediately following states “buy these and more”.

I just searched NamePros and could not find the thread ISO referred to. I only found the signature of one user offering generic domains such as ISO.mobi, RSS.mobi, and Ranch.mobi for sale.

The rest of the details on the ISO.mobi case are interesting, too. International Organization for Standardization, a well-known quasi-governmental organization, originally owned ISO.mobi but let it expire. The fresh owner picked it up as an expired domain, and doesn’t appear to have hosted ads on it related to ISO. Instead, the owner put up a crude online matchmaking web site. Shortly following receiving an email from ISO, the owner also registered other domains he deemed related to his acronym of ISO: “I SEEK OTHERS”. The arbitrator believed that the registration of these domains following receiving correspondence showed the respondent had something to hide.

Interestingly, the panel also cited the fact that the respondent hand-picked the domain name for registration, as opposed to using “automated methods”, as further evidence that the respondent registered the domain in bad faith. This is interesting since I’ve rarely seen the “automated methods” defense hold up.

You can review the entire decision on WIPO’s web site.