Case Number: FA2010001918789
Complainant: BRH International Inc.
Represented by: Tillman Wright, PLLC
A three-member panel of the National Arbitration Forum has found a New York-based smoking accessory company guilty, BRH International Inc., of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking in their effort to obtain the domain, hemper.com, from Mira Holdings, Inc. The RDNH ruling was handed up December 14, 2020. BRH International was represented by Jeremy C. Doerre of the firm of Tillman Wright, PLLC. Mira Holdings was represented by Howard Neu, Esq.
Mira Holdings acquired the domain in an online auction in May 2018, where it was bidding against BRH International. In June 2018, BRH filed for a trademark for the term ‘hemper’, which was granted in August of 2019.
The timeline of the domain acquisition and trademark filings was enough to convince the panelists of bad faith on the part of the complainant, which had its UDRP case denied, issuing its RDNH ruling on December 14, 2020.
“Upon review of all of the pleadings and proofs submitted by the parties, the Panel concludes that Complainant, while knowing or having reason to know that it could not succeed in proving all of the required elements of its case, has nonetheless commenced and prosecuted this proceeding for the evident purpose of obtaining by misuse of the UDRP system what it failed to secure through a legitimate competitive auction process,” the panelists wrote.
Source: https://www.adrforum.com/DomainDecisions/1918789.htm