WPO of a World Intellectual Property Organization panelist has found Navasard Limited to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking.
Navasard Limited operates online gambling websites under the moniker 1xBet.
It filed a cybersquatting complaint against 1experience.com. A company that offers VIP travel and experience packages uses this domain.
Ian Lowe, a WIPO panelist, determined that Navasard failed to make a prima facie case. The panelist found that Navasard did not show the domain owner lacks any rights or legitimate interests in the domain name. Navasard didn’t even mention that the domain resolved to an active website.
It’s also notable that the domain owner is in the United States, where the Complainant’s websites are inaccesible.
Lowe wrote in finding reverse domain name hijacking, “The Panel recognizes that the Complainant is unpresented, but it is an online gambling business that is bound to have careful regard to Internet related procedural and regulatory issues. The Panel also notes that it has been filing a substantial number of UDRP complaints and is therefore familiar with the procedure. The Complaint is sparse and inexplicably fails to mention the website operated by the Respondent for at least six years, which appears to offer bona fide services. Furthermore, when notified of the identity of the Respondent in the United States it made no attempt substantively to amend the Complaint or to address issues around the non-availability of the Complainant’s online betting services in the United States.
Navasard indeed has filed more than 30 UDRP complaints in the previous year, and this is its first loss. It might be a case of the company being a bit too formulaic and aggressive in its filings.
