Vineyards named Wilson goes to court — Battle over

Winery files federal lawsuit following losing UDRP.

A California firm has filed a federal trademark and cybersquatting lawsuit (pdf) following first failing to obtain the domain name WilsonVineyard.com through a UDRP.

Wilson Vineyards, Inc filed a UDRP against Wilson Vineyard (singular) of Pennslyvania earlier this year. It was a bad UDRP filing, as there was no way to prove that the respondent lacked rights or legitimate interests in the domain. Following all, the respondent and domain name owner ran a vineyard by that name in Pennsylvania. That would be quite the elaborate ruse to pretend to have legitimate interests in a domain.

If anything, this is a trademark dispute and not a cybersquatting dispute.

So now the California vineyard has filed a trademark lawsuit. In addition to claims of false designation and trademark infringement, the lawsuit claims that the defendant is cybersquatting.

The filing makes no mention that a UDRP panel denied a dispute over the domain name.