Laws Of .com

Domain Names Ordered Transferred Based on Trade mark Confusion

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) recently released a dispute resolution decision regarding the use of two domain names, abelmed.ca and abeldent.ca. The complainant, ABELSoft Corporation of Burlington, Ontario has registered trade-marks in “ablemed” and “abledent” in relation to its office management computer products for medical and dental professionals. The registrant was an employee or officer of Antibex Software of Toronto, Ontario, which also sells computer software used in the management of medical practices. As the registrant did not file a response to the complaint, the panel based its decision on the complaint, and found that it met the onus on it under the CIRA Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, and ordered that the registration be transferred to the complainant. In assessing the three elements required to justify arriving at its decision, namely that the registrant’s domain names were confusingly similar with registered trade-marks, the registration had been in bad faith, and that the registrant had no legitimate interest in domain names, the panel noted that as there was “no other apparent explanation for the Registrant’s registration of these domain names, the Panel must conclude that the Registrant’s primary purpose was to disrupt the business of the Complainant.”

For a copy of the decision, visit:

http://cira.ca/en/dpr-decisions/00082-abelmed.ca.pdf

For a copy of CIRA’s Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, visit:

http://cira.ca/en/cat_dpr_policy.html