“Great Run” events engaged in reverse domain name hijacking — Organizer of

Panel finds that group brought was attempting to reverse domain name hijack GreatRun.com.

Nova International Limited, the firm that organizes the Great Run series of events, has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking in a UDRP for GreatRun.com.

The complainants use the domain name GreatRun.org, which it registered in 2002.

Panelist Gabriela Kennedy gave three reasons she believes Nova International brought its case in abuse of the policy:

1. It likely chose a .org domain name in 2002 since the matching .com was by now taken. It has known since then that the .com was owned by someone else.

2. There’s a lack of evidence that the complainant’s mark has a strong reputation or worldwide fame since its inception or when it registered the .org.

3. The complainants threatened the domain name owner with a UDRP if it didn’t quickly accept its $3,000 offer for the domain name. That’s a big no-no.

The race firm was represented by Bond Dickinson LLP.