Male enhancement firm nailed for RDNH over Maximize.com
Nucell, LLC, seller of a “male enhancement” product, has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name Maximize.com
A three person Czech Arbitration Court panel wrote a scathing finding of reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH), and it was warranted.
The owner of the domain name bought it in 2008 for $10,000. The complainant, which may not have been an active firm at the time, started harassing the domain name owner a few years later, as stated by the decision. It doesn’t seem that Nucell gained any sort of trademark rights in the term “maximize” until following the domain was registered. Even then, it is clearly generic.
As stated by the domain name owner, the complainant created a false document showing that the domain owner tried to sell the domain name to Nucell. Still, the panel wasn’t able to determine if it was a forgery or not.
The panel noted that “While the Complainant wants the Disputed Domain Name that does not translate into an obligation on the Respondent to surrender it and in doing so lose his USD $10,000.”
It wrote a lengthy rationale regarding why Nucell abused the policy in the proceeding. It’s worth reading in its entirety, but here’s a summary:
1. “the Complainant has failed on every significant issue in the proceeding and must have known that it would fail.”
2. “Complainant knew or must have known that it could not prove that the domain name had been registered in bad faith due to the obvious registration chronology.”
3. “the history of four years of harassment by Complainant of Respondent to force it to hand over the domain name.”
4. “the Complainant obviously feels entitled to the Disputed Domain Name and does not wish to pay for it.”
