Domain arbitration processes are not always about real claims for domains. Sometimes these are used as the ‘Plan B’ to get the domain name in case of a failed negotiation. Today we have another case where the cofounder of Cart.com received a similar Plan B domain dispute.
The domain name in dispute here was byfy.com. The Complainant was Etrack LLC. The Complainant has trademark rights over BYFY. The Complainant acquired the trademark in June 2021. The Complainant claims that the Respondent was not using the domain name and the proof of this can be found in the conversation between the Complainant and the Respondent.
The Respondent had acquired the domain name 2013. The Respondent is the co-founder as well as CTO of Cart.com. The Respondent claimed that the domain name was registered for the purpose of starting an E-Commerce platform that went like ‘By You For You’. The domain name in dispute served as an abbreviation of this phrase.
The panel found that the trademark was registered much later than the date of domain name registration. In fact, the trademark was registered just 6 months before this case. The Complainant could not prove bad faith with the Respondent and hence the Complaint was denied.
The Court also pointed out that the Complaint knew the bad faith claim could not be achieved by mere showing of the conversation between the parties. The Complaint was filed clearly because of the failed negotiations. An RDNH was awarded to the Complainant.
Read the full case here.
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