Case Number: D2020-1354
Complainant: Cheap Stuff, Inc.
Represented by: House Counsel
A California-based company, perhaps best remembered for malware and a lawsuit against Microsoft, has been found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking by the World Intellectual Property Organization after attempting to use the UDRP process to transfer the registration of the domain cheapstuff.com. Cheap Stuff, Inc., which has had its corporate registration suspended, had filed its case against NG9 Communications Pvt. Ltd., of India, on May 28, 2020. NG9 Communications had bought the domain at an aftermarket domain drop auction, which was held on March 8, 2020.
Cheap Stuff, Inc., which used internal counsel, had argued, in its complaint, that the registrar, Network Solutions, had failed to renew the domain after Cheap Stuff, Inc. had paid the registration renewal fee. However, NGO Communications Pvt. Ltd., represented by noted domain attorney John Berryhill, Ph.D., argued such a claim was patently false, and that most of the evidence submitted by Cheap Stuff, Inc. had been doctored or falsified in some way.
Among those items was a receipt that purported to show payment of the domain renewal fee; however, in its response, NG9 Communications argued that Cheap Stuff, Inc. has never been a registrant of record for the domain, cheapstuff.com, at any time in the past 20 years.
The sole panelist on the WIPO panel immediately cited false statements and evidence as among the core reasons for his finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking. John Swinson wrote, “As part of the Complaint, the Complainant provides a purported invoice to show the payment of the renewal fees to the Registrar. The purported invoice is dated after the Respondent acquired the Disputed Domain Name at auction and after the Disputed Domain Name expired.”
Mr. Swinson even suggested there may be an ethics consideration to ponder for the house counsel that represented Cheap Stuff, Inc., due to the volume of falsified evidence.
“The Complaint was in the Panel’s view of the evidence submitted brought with disregard for the truth, and contains false statements and evidence designed to mislead the Panel,” Mr. Swinson wrote of the complainant, adding the extraordinary notation, “[T]he Respondent may have reason to report Complainant’s representative who certified the Complaint to the appropriate … authorities.”
The RDNH ruling was handed up July 14, 2020.
Source: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2020-1354