Case Number: D2020-2693
Complainant: The Curators of the University of Missouri
Represented by: Thompson Coburn LLP
The Curators of the University of Missouri have been found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking in their attempt to acquire the domain muhealthcare.com from its current owner, Pamela Holley, using the UDRP process. A single member panel at the World Intellectual Property Organization handed up its ruling on December 3, 2020. The University was represented by the law firm of Thompson Coburn, LLP. Ms. Holley responded without an attorney.
The sole panelist on the WIPO board, W. Scott Blackmer, agreed the domain, muhealthcare.com, was currently being used in bad faith, but he observed that at the time of domain’s registration, in 2003, the registrant was using the domain as a so-called “gripe site”. Such use, he said, is likely to be protected free speech, nullifying the complainant’s argument of bad faith registration.
“The Complainant here showed that it was capable of using available tools such as the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to establish its own common law trademark rights,” Mr. Blackmer wrote. “[I]t is inexcusable that the Complainant did not employ such tools to establish … how the Respondent used the Domain Name for ten years.”
Source: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2020-2693