Thursday, February 2, 2017

#331 - vibram.ca - TRANSFER GRANTED

The Complainant, Vibram S.p.A., is a popular manufacturer of rubber outsoles for footwear. The Registrant is Interex Corporate Registration Services Inc. (often represented by known cyber-squatter Daniel Mullen). The Domain Name was registered on August 31, 2009.

The Registrant attacked the Complainant’s registered trademark, and argued that the Complainant should fail on the basis of the doctrine of laches since the Complaint was filed seven years after registration of the Domain name.  


The Panel correctly found: (1) that this is not the appropriate forum to dispute the validity of a registered trademark, (2) clarified the test for assessing confusion (first impression and imperfect recollection) which is different from a section 6(5) Trademarks Act analysis (see: fordparts.ca decision), and (3) found bad faith because the Registrant has engaged in a pattern of unauthorized domain name registrations containing third party trademarks - there are numerous previous CDRP decisions involving the Registrant and Daniel Mullen.  

You can read the decision here

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