Case Number: D2022-2433
Complainant: Redgrass SA
Represented by: Riccardo Ciullo
A three-member panel of the World Intellectual Property Organization has found Redgrass SA, Switzerland, guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking for attempting to use the UDRP process to acquire the domain redgrass.com. The domain, itself, was registered in 1999, although the current owner did not acquire the domain until 2017. Nonetheless, the complainant, which sells miniature paintings, did not incorporate until June 2020. The panel handed up its ruling on September 5, 2022.
One of the panelists, Hon. Neil Brown, Q.C., was moved to render a separate written opinion. In it, he accused the complainant of using the UDRP process to intimidate the current domain owner and compel a transfer, following failed purchase negotiations. “It would not be the first claimant to adopt that tactic and it will probably not be the last, but it is certainly one of the most egregious attempts to do so,” Mr. Brown wrote.
Source: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/pdf/2022/d2022-2433.pdf