VNG Corporation is a leading IT company in Vietnam and has a presence in South Asia. The company operated a social network that went by the name ZING ME. The company operated the social network through the deployment of several domain names such as Zingmp3.vn, ZingNews.vn and Zing.vn.
The Company however found the domain name Zing.me being registered and used by some non-associate and thus filed a complaint at the WIPO.
The Complainant claims establishment in 2004. The Complainant presented International trademarks over ZING since 2012. The domain name was registered in 2013 and resolved to a page that offered the same for sale.
The Respondent claims that investing in domain names for PPC purpose has been ruled to be legitimate use of the domain name. The Respondent presents along with him more than 15,000 domain names. Thus establishing that he was a professional domain name investor.
The panel found that the domain name was confusingly similar to the Complainant’s registered trademark. The Complainant does have a prior trademark over the said terms, however the terms in use are dictionary items. Just by registering a domain name, can’t be called infringing upon someone’s rights. Moreover, when the terms in concern are dictionary items. Thus, the Complainant could not prove bad faith.
The Complaint was denied.
You can read the full case here.
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