Case Number: D2020-2958
Complainant: Gainvest Legal Corporation
Represented by:
A Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based legal entity, Gainvest Legal Corporation, which acts as the legal branch of an investment firm, has been found guilty of attempted Reverse Domain Name Hijacking by the World Intellectual Property Organization for using the UDRP process to acquire the domain gainvest.com. The domain, originally registered in 1999, is currently held by John Sozanski, who, with his wife, owns Gainvest, LLC of Berwyn, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia.
The Sozanskis have operated Gainvest, LLC since at least 2008, which the WIPO panel noted was well before Gainvest Legal Corporation began using its service mark, Gainvest, which was only granted protection by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2020.
In issuing his ruling, the sole panelist on the WIPO board, Robert A. Badgley, wrote that the complaint was doomed to fail. “There is absolutely no reason to doubt Respondent Sozanski’s denial of ever having heard of Complainant or its trademark prior to August 2020, when Complainant’s representative Ali approached Respondent about a purchase of the Domain Name,” he wrote.
Mr. Badgley further noted the complainant made a series off frivolous arguments in its effort to press a case. “Complainant also chides Respondent for registering the Domain Name in 1999 but failing to adopt a corresponding business name until 2008,” he observed. “This argument misses the vital point that Complainant itself did not exist and was not using GAINVEST as a trademark for another 11 years after 2008.”
The WIPO panel handed up its ruling December 22, 2020.
Source: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2020-2958