Disputes about domain abbreviations

Many companies want to get a short domain in the prestigious zone (as a rule, this is an abbreviation of the company name), but it soon turns out that all the relevant domains are already taken. Some of them can be bought, but they are not cheap - often their price is in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Not wanting to spend that kind of money on a domain, companies try their last chance - they file a complaint against cybersquatting with WIPO according to the UDRP procedure. Sometimes they succeed - the company gets a wonderful domain almost for free, as in a recent dispute in which the German company ADAC eV (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club) won the rights to adac.net from Original Web Ventures from Canada. But does the commission have sufficient grounds for the transfer of the domain?

The first thing that catches your eye is that the adac.com domain is registered in the name of the Abu Dhabi Airports Company. You can find several dozens of options for decoding the abbreviation ADAC in different languages ​​of the world, some of which are abbreviations of company names. Therefore, it is almost impossible to prove that the domain owner intentionally seized the domain in order to use the brand of not the most famous German company for their own purposes.

Commissioner Diana Cabell called for common sense and acted on the side of the defendant:
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“Abbreviations and initials should be interpreted in the same way as vocabulary words, as they can also have many uses. Different users can use the same combination of letters, but decrypt it differently. Some abbreviations can be registered as trademarks, but there are so many options for their legitimate use that it is extremely difficult to prove the malicious intent of a domain registrar in relation to any particular company. ”

Also, Diana Cabell noted that the very possibility of wide use of short domains is the reason for their high market value, and therefore it is not necessary to transfer the rights to such domains to any company just because the seller may have set a high price for the domain.

But, unfortunately, common sense did not prevail. Two other members of the commission who considered this dispute - Eduardo Fano and Karen Fong - did not agree with her point of view and made a shallow decision. As a result, the domain was transferred to the plaintiff on the basis that the defendant used the ADAC eV brand for personal gain. In this case, it was about the fact that the former owner of the domain posted on the site adac.net links and advertising banners. And among the many links, one way or another connected with the abbreviation ADAC, could be the sites of the German company or its competitors.