The UDRP case regarding LEADPAGES.COM

 

  
     
 

Avenue 81, Inc. represented by Law Firm Fredrikson & Byron loses UDRP case in its attempt to unfairly grab 10 year old LEADPAGES.com domain name.

WIPO Panelists found Avenue 81, Inc. guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking.

  
 


Unanimously all of the three panelists agreed that the LEADPAGES.com domain name had neither been registered in bad faith nor was the LEADPAGES.com domain name being used in bad faith.

  
  The WIPO Panelists stated : "The Complainant’s assertion that the Respondent passively held the disputed domain name with the patience of Job, awaiting the day when the Complainant or some other third party would eventually adopt “Leadpages” for use as a business identifier, borders on the absurd, and as the record reveals is simply untrue as a matter of fact – facts the Complainant could and should have found out for itself with a brief Internet search before filing the Complaint."
  
 


"It is undisputed that the Respondent registered the disputed domain name many years before the Complainant’s launch of its business in November 2012. The Complainant registered the domain name <leadpages.net> in November 2012, and would have been aware of the Respondent’s prior registration of the disputed domain name when the Complainant adopted “Leadpages” as a business identifier."

Avenue 81, Inc. represented by Fredrikson & Byron had their complaint denied by WIPO the World Intellectual Property Organisation. The respondent was represented by John Berryhill.

The WIPO ruling on the case (Avenue 81, Inc. v. Karl Payne ) can be found at WIPO Case No.: D2014-1825
 

The panelists' concluding paragraph sums up by saying:

"In the Panel’s view, the record in this case evinces that the Complaint was brought in bad faith within the meaning of the applicable provisions of the Policy and Rules. It is undisputed that the Respondent registered the disputed domain name many years before the Complainant’s launch of its business in November 2012. The Complainant registered the domain name <leadpages.net> in November 2012, and would have been aware of the Respondent’s prior registration of the disputed domain name when the Complainant adopted “Leadpages” as a business identifier."

and

"The Panel further finds that the Complaint was brought in bad faith and constitutes an abuse of the administrative proceeding."

  
 
 
  There are news stories about the LEADPAGES.com domain name UDRP case on DomainNameWire.com "LeadPages is a Reverse Domain Name Hijacker"

There are numerous sources for "Reverse Domain Name Hijacking".  Amongst these are RDNH.com and HallOfShame.com (which includes a current list of those found guilty of trying to Reverse Hijack a Domain Name in which they had no legal rights. In other words they tried to bully the rightful owners into relinquishing their property and forcing these innocent parties to spend thousands to defend what they already own).

See also Does the UDRP do more harm than good? and The UDRP: A Problem at the Core of the Internet

 

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