nlix.net: A domain name with a history

Social media, Instant delivery, Online bankings and payments, etc. have altered our perception of the internet, the world and even life in a certain way. We want things to happen quickly. 

An event needs to conclude shortly, elongation of which causes discomfort among everyone. With such constrained time duration provided, we tend to forget the effect of time. We tend to forget that even the popular worldwide internet has become decades old now.

Broadband Hosting B.V brought a Complaint to the WIPO against the domain name nlix.net. The Complainant, established in 2001, interconnects networks, data centers, and applications across several European cities. The Complainant claims trademark rights over figurative marks used in the domain name in the EU and the UK in January 2018.

The Complainant presented that it was a known name and used the terms in question for its services from its inception. Since, the Complainant never gave the permission to the Respondent regarding the use of the domain name, the registration of the same resolves to bad faith. The extension used in the domain name is even more significant to the Complainant. The Complainant works in a business related to network, while the TLd here is .net.

The Respondent presented a different narrative to the chain of events. The Respondent claimed that he had registered the domain name in 1996,while he was in New Zealand. The Respondent registered the domain name in relation with a company with use of the term Next Level Information eXchange in it. The domain name was later expired. In 2003, the Respondent got hold of the domain name again. 

The panel went through a limited research regarding the domain name history. Only after assessment of the history of the domain name, could a fair decision be reached. The Panel found that the domain name was registered in 2003. The panel also found that the domain name did exchange hands in 2003. The panel also found that the domain name registered back as 2001 and connected with the nameservers in New Zealand. The panel concluded that it was more likely that domain name was registered with the Respondent before 2000, than the contrary. Based on this understanding, the Respondent couldn’t have registered the domain name in bad faith as it preceded any use of the term or the trademark registration by the Complainant.

The Complaint was denied.


You can read the full cases here.


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