CDRP SUMMARY #178 - Google Inc. v. David Perron

The Complainant (Google Inc.) established its case and the panelist therefore directed the transfer of googleqc.ca to the Complainant. David Perron, the Registrant, did not respond to the Complaint. The Complainant and the Registrant previously entered into an Agreement whereby the Registrant was granted use of Google’s custom search engine (amongst other things). In other words, internet users could attend at the Registrant’s website and perform a Google search with the customized appearance of tuned search results, and advertisements dedicated to the Registrant’s website and audience. However, the Registrant registered a confusingly similar domain name adding “qc” to the end of the GOOGLE trade-mark and created a website with a similar appearance to google.com. By adding the word “Quebec", a fleur-de-lys beneath the stylized Google trade-mark, and some French text on the Registrant’s website, the arbitrator found that this was intended to mislead internet users into believing the Registrant’s website was created by Google for internet users in Quebec.