Wednesday, May 18, 2016

#311 - ameco.ca - TRANSFER REFUSED

Fluour Corporation is the Complainant.  In 1977, American Equipment Company, Inc. was acquired by the Complainant, and is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of the Complainant.  American Equipment Company, Inc. obtained the AMECO trademark in 2000.  The Respondent asserts the position that the Complainant is a United States company without  a Canadian trademark, and therefore is ineligible to hold  a .ca domain name. 

The Complainant asserted that it was satisfied the Canadian presence requirements as a result of the "ownership" of the AMECO trademark. However, the Panel found that the Complainant did not own the trademark, and therefore dismissed the complaint without prejudice to the actual owner (American Equipment Company, Inc.) from seeking relief in the future.

You can read the decision here.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

#310 - creativeartistsagency.ca - TRANSFER GRANTED

The Complainant, OHM, Inc., uses the trademark CREATIVE ARTISTS AGENCY in association with its highly popular sports agency services. The Registrant registered Domain Name on July 31, 2015, and is using the website to impersonate the Complainant and advertise that it represents over 200 artists in all fields.  Furthermore, the Registrant uses an email address associated with the Domain Name to perpetrate its fraud.  In its bad faith analysis, the panelist held that the continued use of the Domain Name by the Registrant would preclude the Complainant from choosing how it is represented online, an important business consideration for the Complainant (business run on reputation).  

You can read the decision here

#309 - mobilemini.ca - TRANSFER DENIED

The Complainant, Mobile Mini Inc., owns the MOBILE MINI design trademark registered for use in association with metal containers and rental of metal containers for the storage and transportation of goods (used in Canada at least as early as 1990).  The Registrant operates a pay-per-click website with links relate to cell phones and related products/services and digital images of the back of person looking into a self-storage locker and another image that appears to show wooden storage crates in a warehouse.   The Registrant is connected with Ontrack Container Sales Ltd., and despite requesting an extension, did not file a response.  The Panelist disagreed that the Domain Name was registered in bad faith because the Complainant’s were not competitors (no evidence relating to this point in 2006 at the time the Domain Name was registered), the web site makes no reference to the Complainant (cell phones can be fairly characterized as MOBILE and MINI), and there is likely no confusion despite ten years of parallel use.  

You can read the decision here