Case Number: D2022-4130
Complainant: Majid Al Futtaim Properties, LLC
Represented by: Talal Abu Ghazaleh Legal
A developer of mall properties across the Middle East has been found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking after attempting to gain the transfer of the domains matajer.net and matajer.com, in two separate UDRP cases before the World Intellectual Property Organization, D2022-4130 and D2022-4129, respectively. Both domains are currently owned by Ayman Bajnaid, a resident of South Africa. The developer, Majid Al Futtaim Properties, LLC, of the United Arab Emirates, had complained to the World Intellectual Property Organization, citing numerous trademarks it owns for several mall names, all which contain the term “Matajer”. However, the respondent observed, in replying to both cases, that he had bought his domain name five years prior to the complainant’s trademark registrations.
In the case of the .net domain, WIPO D2022-4130, panelist John Swinson wrote, “The Complaint was always doomed to fail,” wrote panelist John Swinson, who noted the UAE developer, represented by an Egyptian law firm, even attempted to mislead the panel.
Swinson noted the complainant, in its filing, “argues that the Respondent attempted to cause confusion by diverting the disputed domain name to the Respondent’s website. However, the disputed domain name does not divert to any website, as the Complaint later acknowledges.”
The first WIPO ruling against Majid Al Futtaim Properties, LLC was handed up on December 1, 2022; the second ruling, in UDRP case D2022-4129 was handed up in the .com case on December 22, 2022.
The cases may be viewed at the following links:
https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/pdf/2022/d2022-4130.pdf.
https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/pdf/2022/d2022-4129.pdf.
* Editor’s note: This story was updated from the original to reflect the addition of the RDNH ruling in the case of matajer.com, which came several weeks after the ruling in the .net case. As both cases are near companions to each other, and all parties and pleadings were nearly the same in both matters, it was determined that writing a separate article would be superfluous.
Source: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/pdf/2022/d2022-4130.pdf