Australian firm fails to get Pepperjam domain name in UDRP

Remember affiliate network Pepperjam? An Australian firm wants one of its domain names.

An Australian lender that uses the brand name “Pepper Money” has failed to get the domain name PepperMoney.com from an old division of eBay.

Pepper Group Limited filed a cybersquatting claim against 1075 First Global Associates, LLC.

Although you’ve probably never heard of 1075 First Global Associates, LLC, this is the fresh owner of the once-popular affiliate network PepperJam.

eBay bought Pepperjam in 2012 and rebranded it as eBay Affiliate Network. eBay later spun it out and no longer has an interest in it. That’s where the respondent steps in: it bought the assets and is now relaunching under the Pepperjam name.

Pepper Group Limited owns Pepper.com.au and PepperMoney.com.au. It recently rebranded as Pepper Money, and admits in the UDRP that this was a recent rebrand. Still, PepperMoney.com was registered 2011. This means it couldn’t have been registered in bad faith.

That’s why the complainant first tried to buy PepperMoney.com. When it failed, it resorted to a UDRP.

A three person World Intellectual Property Organization panel, confirmed that the complainant didn’t prove the domain was registered in bad faith.