Reglikedomain industry desk

Produce firm harvests a reverse domain name hijacking finding

Produce firm harvests a reverse domain name hijacking finding

The domain name was registered more than two decades ahead of the firm had any trademark rights.

Produce with the words reverse domain name hijacking overlaid

A Forum panelist has ruled that produce firm Planet Harvest, LLC, attempted to reverse hijack the domain name planetharvest.com. The firm uses the hypenated domain planet-harvest.com.

Vance More registered planetharvest.com in 1999 and later moved it to his firm, MV3 Inc.

Planet Harvest did not start using the name until 2023, so the case was dead on arrival. Given the dates, the respondent could not have registered the domain to target the then-non-existent mark.

Planet Harvest offered the registrant $2,201 for the domain. When the registrant countered at $100,000, the firm filed the dispute, making this a classic Plan B case of reverse domain name hijacking.

Panelist Nicholas J.T. Smith cited a number of reasons this was reverse domain name hijacking:

  • The date of the domain registration was well ahead of the complainant’s mark existed.
  • Despite being represented by counsel, the complainant advanced discredited theories, such as that a renewal is a re-registration.
  • The complainant first tried to buy the domain and turned to UDRP following it didn’t like the price the registrant asked.

Rachel Saunders of Saturday Legal, LLC, represented Planet Harvest. The respondent was self-represented.

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