The UDRP Panel is composed of judges of utmost honesty and professionalism. This is evident in many cases where if the facts are so aligned, then the panel decides in favor of the party even when they are absent from the procedure.
Blackbaud, Inc is a software company that helps other organizations and companies to organize charity events. In 2017 the company acquired another company named JG US, Inc. JG US, Inc owns the trademark rights over JUSTGIVING filed in 2017, with the claimed first use in 2001.
Blackbaud, Inc thus filed a complaint against the domain name JustGiving.online when it was registered by another party. The domain name was registered in March 2022 and at one time included PPC links in German. The Respondent however didn’t respond to the complaint’s resolution procedure.
The panel noted that although the domain name does contain a term that is registered by the complainant as trademarks. However, the complainant failed to show how the domain name registration was carried out to target the complainant’s mark. The domain was only once used for PPC links that had no connection with the complainant’s marks.
The panel noted that the Respondent was based in Algeria. The complainant’s business had no presence in Algeria. Hence, it was plausible that the respondent was not aware of the complainant’s trademarks. Also the terms Just and Giving are common terms, which could be a possible reason for registering it.
The complaint could not satisfy the third condition necessary for a complaint to succeed and hence it was denied.
You can read the full case here.
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