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De Beers Wins Trademark Case Against Website
Sep 27, 2016 1:34 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT... De Beers succeeded in a “complaint against an individual”
who registered the domain name debeers.feedback and purported to provide
consumer reviews about the diamond producer.
The decision is the first that relates to a generic
top-level domain (gTLD) with the form .feedback and shows brands owners can
challenge such registrations, said lawyers acting for De Beers.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
administrative panel ordered the domain name be transferred to De Beers after the
portal met three requirements for a successful complaint: the domain name was
identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which De
Beers has rights; the respondent had no rights to the disputed domain name; and the
domain name had been registered and was being used in bad faith, according to law
firm Bird & Bird.
The decisive consideration underpinning the decision related
“to the history of the posting of the reviews.” At least five reviews posted on
the site and dated before March 24 did not appear on the page until after March
24, sole panelist Warwick Rothnie wrote in the decision. While one comment
saying just “Nah mate” had been published by that date, the other purportedly
real reviews only appeared after De Beers lawyers sent a letter of demand on
March 24, Rothnie added.
“If the website were genuinely operating as a feedback
forum, one would ordinarily expect the reviews to have appeared at or close to
their respective dates,” Rothnie wrote.
“As any misuse of our IP could seriously undermine our brand
equity, De Beers takes the protection of its IP very seriously,” said Melinda
Willis, a legal advisor at De Beers parent company Anglo American. “This
includes adapting our brand protection and enforcement strategies to the
ever-changing online world including, in this case, the new gTLD regime.”
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Tags:
De Beers, debeers.feedback, generic top-level domain, gTLD, intellectual property, IP, Rapaport News, trade mark
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