Domain names from Australian man who demanded $1.5 million — Nirvana gets

Panels say it Smells Like B.S.

Nirvana LLC — the firm that owns the intellectual property from the late grunge band Nirvana — has won control of five domain names registered by an Australian man.

The firm filed UDRP and aUDRP disputes against Darren Wilcox (Willcox) for the domain names nirvanadrums.com.au,
nirvanadrums.net.au, nirvanadrums.com, nirvanadrumsfilm.com and nirvanadrums.net.

Wilcox argued that he registered the domain names since of the concept of nirvana. Still, his actions in negotiating a settlement with Nirvana certainly made it look like bad faith.

Following saying he had out-of-pocket costs of regarding $2,500, Wilcox requested $1.5 million to transfer the domain names.

He later tried to justify the $1.5 million price tag (and threat of using the domains if no settlement was reached) by explaining that the $2,500 did not include “man hours, concept consolidation, trademark applications, future projects, and the amount of knowledge that the Respondent has regarding drums.”

That’s an awful lot of knowledge.

Wilcox also noted that Nirvana “is a considerable financial juggernaut”, a statement that will always look bad to UDRP panels.