John Berryhill gives another masterclass on UDRP

In the thread that deals with the UDRP for Lambo.com. John Berryhill once again provides a masterclass for those who want to understand the UDRP process better.

John points out the important things that especially newer domain investors should understand.

One of the better posts consisted of the following:

Then the fact that there are some minor other uses doesn’t change the basic point that the UDRP is driving at:

“Why did this person register this domain name?”

A trademark doesn’t have to be unique for a trademark owner to win a domain dispute, but these cases ultimately come down to the panel’s assessment of the credibility of the reason why the respondent claims to have registered the domain name.

Take a trademark like “Monster”. It’s well known as an energy drink, and electronic cable manufacturer, and an employment service. To show that someone who has registered “Monster” in a domain name is cybersquatting, then the complaint is going to have to provide some factual basis to conclude the respondent was targeting them.

But, when you have an association of the term with the trademark owner which is this strong, then a lot is going to depend on the credibility of the respondent’s explanation of why they registered the domain name, and whatever evidence backs that up. Absolutely, the UDRP places the burden of proof on the complainant, but as a practical matter – and really as a point of common sense – if your defense is going to be “it’s my nickname” then you are going to have to come up with solid evidence of that.

That’s just a basic truth. I’ve defended a lot of “commonly known as cases” and “because I say so” doesn’t work out very well.

You can point to other companies, surnames, etc., but at the end of the day, these cases come down to what the panel believes the most likely answer is to the question “why did this person register this domain name?” If the response is sketchy on details like when the name was registered, and relies on a changed username on a web forum after the name was acquired, then some panelists – and in this instance two out of three – are going to be skeptical of the respondent’s motivation.

John went on to post screenshots of the Google results which you can find here.

You can continue to read page 11 and move on to 12, there are also some salient points made on pages 9 &10. It’s well worth the read if you have an interest in learning about UDRP’s from someone actually defending them with a 98.1% success rate.