Russian car cam firm guilty of reverse domain name hijacking
Firm wanted .com domain to match its .ru website.
A Russian electronics seller known for its car cameras has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking by a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panelist.
Limited Liability Firm AV 808, which uses the domain name CarCam.ru, filed a cybersquatting dispute against the domain name CarCam.com.
The owner of CarCam.com registered the domain in 1996, well ahead of the Russian firm existed. The Russian firm tried to buy the domain and filed the cybersquatting dispute under UDRP following its purchase attempts were rebuffed. In other words, it was a classic “Plan B” reverse domain name hijacking.
In finding that the case was brought in abuse of the cybersquatting policy, WIPO panelist Marilena Comanescu determined that:
the Complainant ought to have appreciated that establishing registration and use in bad faith in respect of a domain name which had first been registered seventeen years ago was likely to involve difficult considerations.
