Nailed for reverse domain name hijacking — Vodex Communications

Serial entrepreneur defends 17-year-old domain name.

Serial entrepreneur Taro Gold has successfully defended his domain name Vodex.com in a UDRP. The panel found complainant Vodex Communications to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking by bringing the suit.

Business telecom firm Vodex Communications uses the longer VodexCommunications.com domain name, which it registered in 2012. The firm registered a trademark for Vodex in 2015, claiming a first-use-in-commerce of 2009.

Even that date is well following Gold registered the domain name. In his response, Gold “alleges that, since 1999, he has used the name Vodex for a voice recognition software technology that he developed; that his firm was purchased by AOL in 2001, but that he retained rights to the name Vodex; that he used Vodex again in 2004 at a fresh firm he co-founded called Teleo; that following Teleo was purchased by Microsoft, he retained the rights to the Vodex name and technology; and that he is right now using his Vodex voice recognition technology as a consultant to Nuance, a leading voice recognition software firm.”