The Domain
name at issue is manulife-denial.ca. The parties are well known to each other
as the Complainant successfully brought a previous CDRP (manulifedenial.ca) and
UDRP proceeding. Further, the Registrant
previously acted as in-house counsel for the Complainant from 2002 – 2012. The
Registrant registered the Domain Name in April, 2016, and Manulife asserts
rights in the MANULIFE trademark for over 125 years.
The
Registrant argues that it has a legitimate interest in the Domain Name because
it acts on behalf of individuals with lawsuits against Manulife. The Panel found that the first impression of
the name manulife in the context of consumers looking at the domain name is (1) simply a reference to
Manulife and being used as names are ordinarily used and (2) everyone has the right
to use others’ names for that purpose.
Despite numerous cases on this point (including the previous CDRP case relating to this domain, this trademark and these parties), the Panel found that the
rights given to trademark owners do not extend to control everything that is
said or done by others in reference to their trade marks and trade names.
The Panel
dismissed the Complaint which can be found here.
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