Domain did not get the trademark holder
Microsystems Technology, Inc., the owner of the AnyDoc trademark, recently lost a dispute about the AnyDoc.com domain under the UDRP (extra-judicial procedure for resolving domain disputes).
The AnyDoc brand was registered in 2004, and the domain name AnyDoc.com was purchased by Matthew Lamb from the previous owner in 2006. Since then, the domain has either not been used at all or has been in the parking lot. In the latter case, advertising was placed on the main page of the site, including links to sites of companies that are direct competitors of Microsystems Technology.
Despite such a clear violation of intellectual property rights, the defendant was acquitted.
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The owner of the AnyDoc.com domain, Matthew Lamb, managed to convince the commission on resolving domain disputes that his domain has nothing to do with the claimant’s trademark. According to him, he and his partners never engaged in cybersquatting, and registered domains in order to create a network of information sites on medical subjects.
Matthew Lamb said that the root “Doc” in his domain name is an abbreviation of the word “doctor” rather than “document”, as in the claimant’s trademark. The site itself was designed to quickly search for medical services in a particular city. Consequently, it does not affect the interests of Microsystems Technology, and can only compete with other sites of similar subjects, for example www.docasap.com .
Lamb also noted the registration of other medical domains, ostensibly for his project: usdentistfinder.com and orthodontistlocator.com. However, according to him, in 2007 the project went bankrupt, and he renewed the registration of domains in the hope of returning to the creation of a network of sites, when there is an opportunity for this. In this regard, the commission recognized as admissible the temporary use of the domain to make a profit from advertising.
It is worth noting that Microsystems Technology twice - in 2010 and 2012. started negotiations on the purchase of a domain without making any complaints about the use of their trademark. But the parties did not agree, and the deal did not take place.
In addition to the circumstances mentioned above, the commission took into account the fact that the domain name AnyDoc consists of two commonly used words or their abbreviations, and it cannot be uniquely considered as a trademark. The limitation period was also taken into account, and the fact that Microsystems Technology uses other domains for its business activities that are not related to the AnyDoc brand.
Thus, the owner of the brand was denied rights to AnyDoc.com, and the domain remained in the hands of a private individual.
“The conflict between Microsystems Technology and Mr. Lamb clearly illustrates the importance of the domain name as an asset to the company. The corporation made a mistake in 2006 - did not protect its trademark on the Internet. Now she is forced to negotiate a price.
On the other hand, this conflict once again illustrates the thesis that owning a domain name can make an organization or a person the sole owner of the word on the Internet, ”commented Sergey Sharikov, CEO of Webnames.Ru . - With the advent of the new gTLD top-level domain names, this problem will move into new zones. There will be a lot of domains where you can register any name. But there may appear almost exclusive owners of top-level domains consisting of common words, such as .apps, .health, etc. ”
The AnyDoc brand was registered in 2004, and the domain name AnyDoc.com was purchased by Matthew Lamb from the previous owner in 2006. Since then, the domain has either not been used at all or has been in the parking lot. In the latter case, advertising was placed on the main page of the site, including links to sites of companies that are direct competitors of Microsystems Technology.
Despite such a clear violation of intellectual property rights, the defendant was acquitted.
')
The owner of the AnyDoc.com domain, Matthew Lamb, managed to convince the commission on resolving domain disputes that his domain has nothing to do with the claimant’s trademark. According to him, he and his partners never engaged in cybersquatting, and registered domains in order to create a network of information sites on medical subjects.
Matthew Lamb said that the root “Doc” in his domain name is an abbreviation of the word “doctor” rather than “document”, as in the claimant’s trademark. The site itself was designed to quickly search for medical services in a particular city. Consequently, it does not affect the interests of Microsystems Technology, and can only compete with other sites of similar subjects, for example www.docasap.com .
Lamb also noted the registration of other medical domains, ostensibly for his project: usdentistfinder.com and orthodontistlocator.com. However, according to him, in 2007 the project went bankrupt, and he renewed the registration of domains in the hope of returning to the creation of a network of sites, when there is an opportunity for this. In this regard, the commission recognized as admissible the temporary use of the domain to make a profit from advertising.
It is worth noting that Microsystems Technology twice - in 2010 and 2012. started negotiations on the purchase of a domain without making any complaints about the use of their trademark. But the parties did not agree, and the deal did not take place.
In addition to the circumstances mentioned above, the commission took into account the fact that the domain name AnyDoc consists of two commonly used words or their abbreviations, and it cannot be uniquely considered as a trademark. The limitation period was also taken into account, and the fact that Microsystems Technology uses other domains for its business activities that are not related to the AnyDoc brand.
Thus, the owner of the brand was denied rights to AnyDoc.com, and the domain remained in the hands of a private individual.
“The conflict between Microsystems Technology and Mr. Lamb clearly illustrates the importance of the domain name as an asset to the company. The corporation made a mistake in 2006 - did not protect its trademark on the Internet. Now she is forced to negotiate a price.
On the other hand, this conflict once again illustrates the thesis that owning a domain name can make an organization or a person the sole owner of the word on the Internet, ”commented Sergey Sharikov, CEO of Webnames.Ru . - With the advent of the new gTLD top-level domain names, this problem will move into new zones. There will be a lot of domains where you can register any name. But there may appear almost exclusive owners of top-level domains consisting of common words, such as .apps, .health, etc. ”
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/170359/
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