Friday, November 22, 2013

#244 - intertekoil.ca - TRANSFER GRANTED

The Complainant is Intertek Testing Services NA Ltd. The Registrant is Intertek Oil and Gas and/or Canada Oil & Gas Recruitment Agency and the disputed domain name is INTERTEKOIL.CA.

The Complainant established that its registered trademark INTERTEK is a Mark in which it had rights and that those rights pre-dated the registration of the domain name.

The Panel found two indications of bad faith: firstly, the Registrant's web site reproduces verbatim the content of various websites in the oil and gas industry. Secondly, when counsel for the Complainant sent the Registrant a cease and desist letter, the solicitor received a response that threatened to 'trace and kill' the solicitor.

You can read the decision here.

#243 - studentuniverse.ca - TRANSFER GRANTED

The Panel found that the Complainant has rights in the STUDENTUNIVERSE mark based on use in Canada since May 2000.

The Complainant operates the studentuniverse.com web site. The Registrant is a competing travel agent operating its site at s-trip.com (where the studentuniverse.ca. web site resolves) The Registrant did not respond and attempted to file materials and requested an extension of time to file same, which was denied.

The Panel held that the Domain Name was registered in bad faith because the parties were competitors and offered the same services to students.

You can read the decision here.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

#242 - arpe.ca - TRANSFER GRANTED

The Complainant is Electronic Products Recycling Association, a non-profit corporation. The Registrant is Jean-Francois Rivard, an individual. The disputed domain name is arpe.ca.

The Panel found that the Complainant has rights in the unregistered mark based on a press release submitted by the Complainant dated July 19, 2012, which showed use of the ARPE & Design mark and the trade name ARPE-Quebec.

The Panel found that the Registrant acted in bad faith and had registered the Domain Name primarily for the purpose of disrupting the business of the Complainant. The disputed Domain Name resolved to a web site containing accusations against the Complainant and links to a pornographic website.

However, the Panel rejected the Complainant’s argument that the Complainant was a "competitor" of the Registrant in the sense that they were “competing for online traffic.” The Panel found that such an interpretation would render redundant the requirement that the Complainant be a competitor of the Registrant since all web sites compete for traffic.

Nevertheless, the Panel found that the Complainant met its initial burden of providing some evidence that the Registrant had no legitimate interest in the Domain Name and since the Registrant had not filed a reply to the Complaint, the Panel was unable to find that the Registrant had a legitimate interest in the domain and ordered the transfer.


You can read the decision here.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

#214-1 - mtvjerseyshore.ca - TRANSFER GRANTED


The Complainants established their case and the panelist therefore directed the transfer of mtvjerseyshore.ca to the Complainants.
The registrant (W. Ryan Sutherland) did not respond to the Complaint. Viacom International Inc. is a leading global media company whose brands include MTV and its now off-the-air TV show Jersey Shore.  One of the MTV trade-marks was registered as early as 1987 and the unregistered JERSEY SHORE trade-mark was used in Canada since at least as early as December 2009. The Registrant registered the Domain Name (mtvjerseyshore.ca) in October, 2011. The Complainant delivered a cease and desist letter to the registrant, which was ignored.  The panel found that the Domain Name was registered in bad faith because it was primarily registered to disrupt the Complainant’s business – especially in light of the advertisements, photographs and blog entries related to the  Jersey Shore television show. Although the Registrant did not respond to this Complaint, he will not likely be doing any ‘fist-pumping’ following his review of this decision.  

You can read the decision here.