Is first URS loser — Richard Branson
Panel denies claim to Branson.guru.
Last month I wrote regarding how billionaire Richard Branson had filed some cases under the fresh Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) policy to suspend domains that cybersquatted his name and brands.
One case that hadn’t been filed at the time was for Branson.guru. A decision has been handed down and Branson has the distinction of being the first person to lose a URS case.
Branson’s lawyers (actual counsel for his firm Virgin) made a couple statements in their case that are just flat out silly:
Bearing in mind, there is no believable or realistic reason for registration or use of the domain name branson.guru…
Bearing in mind the extent and nature of the Complainant’s reputation in BRANSON and Sir Richard Branson’s own personal reputation, it is impossible to envisage any legitimate purpose for registering the branson.guru domain name, other than to capita[l]ise or gain from the Complainant’s reputation in some way.
The first thing I think of when I hear branson.guru is a site regarding the tourist destination Branson, Missouri. I don’t envision a “guru” site regarding Richard Branson.
My guess is the lawyers basically made the same case they did for RichardBranson.holdings/.ventures.
The panelist rightfully denied the case. Unless the registrant put up a parking page with ads related to Virgin or Richard Branson, or tried to sell the domain directly to the complainant, this case was dead on arrival.
The domain registrant did not reply to the case.
(photo: virgin.com)
