A one member WIPO panel just awarded the domain name TommyBahamaSucks.com to the Trademark Holder.
While we usually post the relevant facts and findings by the panel this case can be summed up citing this finding of the panel:
“”This case ultimately turns on the quality of Respondent’s evidence.”
“In this regard, however, the Panel notes Respondent has not submitted any evidence that it has established a right or legitimate interest in the <tommybahamasucks.com> domain name. In the end, this lack of evidence proves fatal for Respondent.
“While the attorney for Respondent does allege that Respondent has plans to create a criticism site at “www.tommybahamasucks.com” this assertion is not evidence because attorney argument is not evidence. ”
“In this context, the Panel is forced to question the accuracy of Respondent’s assertion. If Respondent did indeed have a legitimate intent to create a criticism site, then the Panel believes Respondent most likely had documentary evidence detailing the preparation of the site and could have submitted these documents as evidence in support of its allegation. On the other hand, the fact Respondent did not submit any evidence on this point tends to undermine Respondent’s assertion.”
“Respondent also asserts that it chose to rely on the concerned registrar to create a “parked” website while it developed its criticism site, and that it receives no monetary benefit from click-through opportunities, despite the fact the “parked” website contains click-through options. ”
“The Panel notes it is impossible to determine whether this assertion is correct because no evidence has been submitted to verify this claim.”
“However, even assuming the assertion is correct, and Respondent never had an intent to secure commercial gain from the domain name, the “parked” website remains a commercial website with click-through opportunities to existing businesses and is not a noncommercial or fair use of the domain name despite the lack of monetary enrichment to Respondent.”
“As such, the “parked” website does not establish that Respondent has rights or legitimate interests in the contested domain name.”
Bottom line if you own a “sucks” domain of a famous brand you better use it as intended by putting some content on it and using it as a grip site.
Well, there are some regsitrars who do a lot of business registering clientcompany namesucks.com for their clients. It forms a substantial prt if not the core of their business. We will not name names but some of these registrars you might recognise while others might surprise you. And many of these client company names are in fact protected by trademark.
So it seems there are more than a few client companies who believe, or are led to believe, they need to pay some registrar to protect them from a theircompanynamesucks.com website, aka a “gripe site” in the case law. Perhaps it is less expensive, proactive and less uncertain than relying on having the theircompanynamesucks.com redirect to their official website or to “nowhere”.
Thousands of domain name registrations are sold on this basis.
We might call these “defensive registrations”. There is an enormous number of them in the com registry. So there’s a “business opportunity” here. Can you see it?
Maybe you personally can’t register trademarkcompanynamesucks.com and profit from the traffic. But if you can get the trademark holder’s permission you can register it on their behalf, to “protect” them from those nasty gripe sites.
Correction: Perhaps… less expensive, proactive and less uncertain than relying on filing UDRP’s
Redirecting to the company website or to “nowhere” is the “service” the registrar offers.
Sure if you have the TM holder “permission” to hold the domain then is Ok but then they wouldn’t be filing UDRP’s against you to get the domain
the only sucks domain I have is cloudcomputingsucks dot com and I don’t think De*ll will go after me as I have 1st hand experience on cloud computing.
Have many offers to sell that domain name.
The truth is that many companies simply do not understand how to register domain names.
You can identify a domain name like tommybahamasucks.com as available, register it and run a grip site. Or you can contact the company and offer to defensively register and redirect it for them.
For better or worse, specialised trademark holder oriented registrar businesses have been built around the later option. (Not to mention the issue of registries that rely on defensive registrations.)
Which option is going to produce the most income?
Can you monetise a gripe site?
the problem here is fair use.no content no use…its that simple.
trademark rights are established by continued use…no use equals trademark abandmonment…no famous tm holder is going to give you any rights….they are going to call their ip attorney and you are out of the loop.geicosucks.com goes into geico….companys protect their own brand..do you realize how hard it is make a brand famous?
thats why one of the test points is how much money is spent on advertising/marketing…
however a simple one page gripe site will sufice…thats why the domain sucks owner needs to know the law..not spend 8.00 and sit on their hands. I think the legal term is latches…failure to act timely…
I own facebooksucks dot com 🙂
The panelists says nothing about any requirement to have content. The site was not lost due to a lack of content. The site was lost because it was deemed to be a commercial use of a tm name (READ PAY PER CLICK PAGE)
Not having content on a page is not a death blow. Making money off of a tm that you do not own is. Thats the lesson. For the thousandth time. For those who either missed it or just dont get it