A common method of brand impersonation is adding a country’s name to a brand. Adding a country’s name to a popular brand makes people feel like the domain name belongs to a brand’s subsidiary in that country. It is not physically possible to register such combinations in every country. Hence, the UDRP procedures provide an alternative.
Fair Isaac Corporation is a credit score analytics company. The company registered the USPTO trademarks for FICO in 1999. The company owns and operates at the domain name FICO.com.
However, a domain name FICOIndia.org was registered in October 2019. The domain name was used to provide links for the direct competitors of Fair Isaac Corporation. Hence, the company filed a UDRP against the people behind this domain name.
The Respondent was one Pritpal Singh from India. However, the respondent did not appear.
The panel noted that the Respondent did not arrive to present their case. An absence in response to the bonafide arguments proposed by the complainant. The panel admitted that the domain name was confusingly similar to the complainant’s mark. The panel also admitted that the domain name was registered to dupe as the complainant’s brand and hence was in bad faith.
The panel transferred the domain name.
You can read the case in detail here.
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