Areas.com doesn’t respond, loses domain name — Owner of

Cybersquatting complaint successful in absence of response.

The owner of Areas.com has lost the domain name in a UDRP following failing to submit a response.

The complaint was brought by AREAS, S.A. of Barcelona, Spain. The firm operates over 1,000 food and beverage outlets. The domain name owner, Andres Sanchez Garcia, lives in Sabadell, Spain.

AREAS, S.A. showed that the domain name was confusingly similar to a mark in which it has rights. It also made out a prima facie case that the domain name owner didn’t have rights or legitimate interests in the domain name. Without a response from the domain owner, this went in favor of the complainant.

Panelist Alejandro Touriño noted that failure to respond to the UDRP can be considered as evidence of registration in bad faith, citing a 2008 case that (sort of) came to that conclusion.

The panelist also stated that, since the complainant operates in Spain and the domain owner is based there, the domain owner probably knew of the complainant.