Case Number: D2019-3128
Complainant: Acubit A/S
Represented by: Hjulmand & Kaptain
A location technology company based in Denmark has been found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking in its efforts to acquire the domain acubit.com using the UDRP arbitration process. Acubit A/S, which was represented by the firm of Hjulman & Kaptain, had filed its complaint for the domain on December 18, 2019, against Ting Zhao of the United States.
Acubit A/S made note of the fact it owns a trademark in the European Union for the term “acubit”, which was registered on November 23, 2018, and has a number of trademark applications for the term “acubit” pending around the world. Acubit further cited a specific claues of Danish trademark law that states holding a domain name that is “contrary” to a trademark is “contrary to good practice”, although there is no cite for such a clause outside of Denmark.
The panel did not accept the company’s complaint allegations, noting the domain had been registered seven years before Acubit A/S even existed, and more than nine years before the trademark was registered in 2018.
In issuing the ruling of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking, the sole panelist, Steven A. Maier wrote, “The Complainant is professionally represented in this matter and, in the opinion of the Panel, knew or ought to have known that it had no reasonable chance of prevailing in this proceeding … including in particular the fact that the disputed domain name had been registered many years before the Complainant began using the trademarks in question.”
Acubit A/S was found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking on February 14, 2020.
Source: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2019-3128