The UDRP case regarding BOON.COM

 

 

Payments company Wirecard AG abused UDRP policy in an attempt to get valuable domain name on the cheap and gets branded as Reverse Domain Name Hijackers.

 

Wirecard AG of Aschheim, Germany, represented by Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co LLP, Germany loses UDRP case in its attempt to unfairly grab 16 year old BOON.com domain name.

A 3 party panel of WIPO Panelists unanimously found Wirecard AG of Aschheim, Germany guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking.

 


The panelists found that the BOON.com domain name had neither been registered in bad faith nor was the boon.com domain name being used in bad faith.


  The WIPO Panelists stated:

"The Complainant, which is represented by counsel and which cited a number of UDRP cases in its Complaint, must be taken to have at least known of the fundamental importance of establishing awareness of the Complainant's rights as at the date of registration of the disputed domain name and that it could not come close to establishing that requirement given the 16-year gap between registration of disputed domain name and acquisition of trade mark rights."

  and:
 

"The Complainant referred to its alleged extensive trading activity and turnover but omitted to mention that none of this related to “boon”, the trade mark at issue in this case and that the Complainant’s apparent venture relating to that trade mark had not yet even been launched. The Complainant should have been open about this fact. "

 


Wirecard AG of Aschheim
represented by Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co LLP, Germany had their complaint denied by WIPO the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

The WIPO ruling on the case (Wirecard AG v. Telepathy Inc., Development Services) can be found at WIPO Case No.: D2015-0703

   
 

The panel noted that Wirecard AG made unfounded claims despite being represented by legal firm Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co LLP.

The panelist's concluding paragraph sums up by saying:

"For the foregoing reasons, the Complaint is denied. The panel further declares that the Complaint was brought in bad faith and that it constitutes an abuse of the administrative proceeding."


 
 
 

There are news stories about the BOON.com domain name UDRP case on DomainNameWire.com "Wirecard nailed for Reverse Domain Name Hijacking and on TheDomains.com "Owned For At Least 14 Years Nat Cohen’s Telepathy, Inc Hit With UDRP on Boon.com".

There are numerous sources for "Reverse Domain Name Hijacking".  Amongst these are RDNH.com and HallOfShame.com (which includes a current list of those found guilty of trying to Reverse Hijack a Domain Name in which they had no legal rights. In other words they tried to bully the rightful owners into relinquishing their property and forcing these innocent parties to spend thousands to defend what they already own).

See also Does the UDRP do more harm than good? and The UDRP: A Problem at the Core of the Internet

 

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