The
Complainant, a precious metals firm, is the owner of the Canadian trade-mark
METALOR, which was registered on September 9, 1994 and has been in use as early
as 1982.
The
Registrant (KMB Environmental Inc. c/o/b/ Michael Gupton) resolved the Domain Name
to a pay-per-click website populated with
sponsored links. The Complainant sent a letter to the Registrant through the
CIRA message delivery form advising the Registrant of the Complainant’s rights
but received no response.
The
Registrant did not technically respond to the Complaint, but did write several
emails to the Panel stating that the domain was "parked", was not
being used for any kind of commercial gain and the matter could have been
resolved for the reimbursement of his reasonable out of pocket expenses .
Nevertheless, the panel found that it is a "well-established
principle" that resolving a domain name to pay-per-click sponsored links
to competitors of a complainant may be considered evidence of bad faith and
ordered the transfer of the Domain Name to the Complainant.
You can read the decision here.
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