A Swedish company called SkyCell AG had reached WIPO regarding the use of the domain name SkyCell.com. The Complaint was lodged against a Respondent who was an old domain name investor.
The Complainant claimed that it had acquired a number of different trademarks over the SKYCELL. The Complainant possesses marks in Switzerland, Brazil and even has an International Mark on the term. The earliest mark was obtained in 2014.
The Complainant claims that the mark SKYCELL is well known and associated with it. The Complainant claimed that the Respondent has no marks over the term in use. Neither is the domain name used for any website. Thus it claimed that the domain name was registered and was being used in bad faith.
The domain name was initially registered in 1995. It reached the Respondent in 2008. At that time the Respondent had invested in similar domain names with ‘SKY’ included in them. This includes SkyFerry.com and SkyGig.com. The Respondent states that he purchased the domain name because of the two generic terms ‘Sky’ and ‘Cell’ in it. The Respondent thought that domain name was a good investment with cellular companies in mind.
The panel noted that the domain name was acquired by the Registrant almost 5 years before any use of the mark by the Complainant. Since there were no marks and companies related to the domain name at the time of registration by the Respondent, it cannot be claimed that the Respondent registered the domain name in bad faith. The Complaint was thus denied.
The panel however also noted that the Complainant approached the panel even after such a long duration between registrations. Even the claims of bad faith by the Complainant was speculative rather than based on facts. The panel awarded a RDNH to the Complainant.
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