Panel rejects UDRP complaint over CASHY casino domain, finding ownership predated the complainant
in plain words
A company tried to take back a website name from another business. The panel said the website's owner had bought the name years before the company was even formed. So the company lost its case. The casino is licensed to operate in Curaçao.
Full summary
A WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization The United Nations agency whose center handles many domain name disputes. Full definition of WIPO panel The one or three independent experts who decide a domain dispute. Full definition of panel has dismissed a complaint by Cashy Technology OÜ, an Estonian company, over the cashy.com domain name A readable internet name made of labels separated by dots. Full definition of domain name. The complainant The party that files a domain dispute, usually a trademark owner. Full definition of complainant runs a game-based financial literacy platform and says the respondent The domain holder against whom a domain dispute is filed. Full definition of respondent, Gareton B.V. and RazorTrade Corporation, acquired the name only in early 2025. It points to changes in the domain's nameservers and hosting between February and April 2025, followed by the appearance of CASHY-branded casino pages.
The respondents say they bought the domain through the broker BrandBucket in January 2019 and submit a purchase confirmation dated January 15, 2019, showing a price of USD $24,995. They say the domain is used for a genuine, licensed online casino operated by Gareton B.V., which does not use the complainant’s logo or content. They add that the 2025 changes reflect the casino’s development and launch, not a change of ownership.
The panel found that the complainant had not submitted sufficient evidence that the casino business is unlawful. It held that the respondents were making a bona fide offering of services, and that by April 2026, months before the complaint was filed in August 2026, they were operating the CASHY casino under a Curaçao Gaming Authority license. The panel also said the complainant had not shown that the casino amounts to trademark infringement.
The panel noted that the respondents had obtained a UK registration for the CASHY trademark. The complainant questioned that registration, but the record contained no evidence that it had been challenged, and the panel said it is entitled to a presumption of validity absent proof otherwise.
The panel found that the respondents acquired the domain on January 15, 2019. That date predates the complainant’s incorporation in September 2020 and its claimed first use of the CASHY mark, which the complainant dates to October 2021.