October 22, 2004

Erroneous interpretation of the UDRP rules?

Panels find that celebrities have a right on their name which can be protected under UDRP. But could D. Carlos Javier Sobera de Prado, host of a TV show in Spain, prevent RR y José Carlos Sobera Martin, Argentin citizen, to use carlossobera.com? Yes according to an arbiter, who said that this complainant had MORE RIGHTS (!) on this domain name than the Respondent!!!
El Panel para decidir la aplicación de este requisito a favor de alguna de las partes considera en el marco de la Política una valoración probatoria y fáctica entre un personaje público con intereses legítimos y una persona privada que junto a otros particulares ha registrado un nombre de dominio. Por un lado, el Demandante ha dado muestra suficiente de actividades profesionales con un contenido comercial y público que justifican retomar un dominio que coincide con su nombre profesional, sin que los Demandados acreditaran un uso público serio del nombre de dominio ni mucho menos un uso público que justifique mantener la titularidad del mismo.
To give this answer, the arbiter did not consider the respondent's rights, but the complainant's. I think this is a mistake, as the procedure is clear when it states that the defendant mustn't have any "rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name" [article 4.a) ii)] and not the contrary.
El Panel considera que el interés legítimo del Demandante está probado y prima en este caso cumpliéndose, en consecuencia, con el segundo requisito de la Política.
I have not seen such a decision since this one, by which a German court transferred shell.de to Shell. The name of the defendant was... Andreas Shell.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't know if it's been reported abroad but armani.it has been registered by an unknown guy named Luca Armani who finally got yo keep his DN.
Bergamo tribunal first ruled against him, ordering the DN to be re-allocated to Giorgio Armani.

Giorgio Armani has also filed a suite against A.R.Mani who regisered armani.com in 1995 (this is a tricky case.
The Wipo ruling is here:
http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2001/d2001-0537.html
Wipo ruled against Giorgio Armani but now the domain is not owned by A.R.Mani anymore: I think they settled this privately.