WIPO panel finds reverse domain hijacking in hemocare.com UDRP case
in plain words
A company tried to buy the website address hemocare.com through a broker but balked at the $15,000 asking price. It then filed a legal complaint claiming the domain owner was infringing its trademark. A panel at the World Intellectual Property Organization said the domain was registered in 2002, years before the company even had trademark rights, so there was no bad faith. The panel ruled the company abused the complaint process.
Full summary
Deka Research & Development Corporation filed a UDRP Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy ICANN's out-of-court process for trademark disputes over domain names. Full definition of UDRP complaint over hemocare.com, owned by Aktan Kurtulmus of Türkiye, who registered the domain in December 2002. Deka holds a US trademark for HEMOCARE, filed in November 2017 and registered in September 2020, with first use claimed from July 31, 2019.
Before filing the complaint, Deka approached the Respondent anonymously through a GoDaddy The largest registrar, which also runs a registry business and an aftermarket platform. Full definition of GoDaddy broker, offering $1,000 for the domain. The Respondent’s broker quoted a $15,000 list price and a $7,500 floor. Deka countered at $5,000, this time citing its trademark registration Obtaining the right to use a domain name for a set period. Full definition of registration and the UDRP itself, but the broker declined to continue negotiating. The domain currently resolves to a generic GoDaddy page that does not advertise it for sale, though archived pages and the current listing show a $15,000 asking price The price a seller states for a domain, fixed or open to negotiation. Full definition of asking price.
Deka argued the Respondent had not used the domain for any bona fide offering of goods or services and that the asking price far exceeded any registration costs, suggesting bad faith Intent to take unfair advantage of another's trademark through a domain name. Full definition of bad faith. The Respondent countered that “Hemocare” combines common terms with an independent medical meaning, that 78 other trademark records use similar names, and that the public listing was not aimed at Deka specifically.
Panelist John Swinson found no bad-faith registration, since the domain was registered in 2002, more than 15 years before Deka’s trademark application and 17 years before its claimed first use. Under WIPO Overview WIPO's guide to how panels usually decide common UDRP questions. Full definition of WIPO Overview section 3.8.1, a respondent The domain holder against whom a domain dispute is filed. Full definition of respondent cannot be found to have targeted trademark rights that did not yet exist. The panel The one or three independent experts who decide a domain dispute. Full definition of panel also found no evidence the Respondent later targeted Deka’s mark.
The panel further ruled that Deka engaged in reverse domain name A readable internet name made of labels separated by dots. Full definition of domain name hijacking, noting that Deka knew when it filed that the domain long predated its trademark rights, meaning its case had no realistic chance of success. The panel concluded Deka pursued the UDRP complaint only after its purchase attempt failed, having disclosed the Policy and its trademark rights during price negotiations before filing.