Wednesday, October 18, 2017

#346 - agmbasements.ca and agmrenovations.ca - TRANSFER GRANTED

The Complainant offers basement and interior renovations services in Canada using the AGM trademark.  Although not yet registered as a trademark, the Complainant provided website screenshots showing use of the AGM trademark, and evidence of the registration of a business name (years prior to the registration of this Domain Name).  The Domain Name was used by a competing business, and the text of the web site included the terms "WHY WE'RE BETTER", and was forwarding visitors to the website basementscanada.com.

The Panel found bad faith because the Registrant's business was named Penguin Basements, and the Panel could find no other reason to use the AGM mark in its Domain Name other than to trade on the Complainant's goodwill.

Of note: the Complainant asked for its costs, and the Panel opined that paragraph 12.6 (up to $5,000.00 payment to registrant if complaint commenced in bad faith) and 14.4 (non-refundable fees) indicates that CIRA did not intend for costs to be awarded in these administrative proceedings.

You can read the decision here.

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