March 03, 2005

Sex, drugs, and UDRP

The pharmaceutical group owner of the famous trademark Aventis complained about the registration of adraianaventis.com. Who registered it? Well, the registrant did not reply to the complainant's contentions.
Interestingly, after looking for the origin of the word "aventis" ("a word coined for the purpose of identifying the Complainants and its products and services"), the Panel browsed the internet to know the origin of Adraian or Adraiana, two forenames. Then, the panel writes:
The sign “adraianaventis” could either be primarily analysed as composed of the components Adraian + Aventis, or as Adraiana + Ventis. In the Panel’s opinion, the telescoped combination of Adraiana + Aventis is less likely.
Adraian + Aventis is clearly one of the possible interpretations of “adraianaventis”. “Adraian”, as a forename, is, in the Panel’s opinion, lacking in any distinctiveness sufficient to regard “aventis”, which the Panel accepts to be both a coined and a well known mark, as being other than the predominant element of the combination.
The panel's web search did not stop after the discovery of the origin of the word Adraiana. The investigation led to a website, "billed as the “Official website of Adraiana Ventis”, “Adraiana Ventis – Pornstar Extraordinaire”, described as “a former teen webcam model from Tampa”". Therefore, the conclusion is the following: "the domain name at issue is used for the purposes of a working pornographic website, as opposed to a website prepared for the purposes of these proceedings."

[WIPO Domain Name Decision D2004-0977]

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