Catalyzer.com could have easily been avoided — UDRP for

This dead-on-arrival UDRP could have been avoided by asking the Complainant a simple question.

Catalyzer, Inc, a leadership training organization, has lost a UDRP for Catalyzer.com.

The case was dead on arrival. Catalyzer recently changed its name from LGL Leadership to Catalyzer and filed a trademark application last year. The current owner of the domain appears to have purchased the dictionary word .com in 2011. Thus, he didn’t register it in bad faith to target the Complainant.

It appears that Catalyzer, which uses the domain TeamCatalyzer.com, filed the case without counsel. It also inquired regarding the domain ahead of filing the dispute.

The domain owner didn’t respond to the UDRP, but National Arbitration Forum panelist correctly denied the transfer.

This type of UDRP can easily be avoided by asking a simple question on UDRP submissions:

Does your trademark pre-date the Respondent’s registration of the domain name, or is there a good reason the domain name owner would have known of your brand prior to registering the domain name?

Has this question been required, Catalyzer would have saved itself the cost and time of filing this dispute.

The domain owner didn’t respond in this case. Had he done so, it’s likely that Catalyzer would have been hit with a reverse domain name hijacking claim.