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RIM Triumphs in .CA Complaint over Blackberry Domain Names
Research in Motion Limited, owner of the BlackBerry trademark for its wireless devices, has won a CIRA domain name dispute with Olivier Mullie. Mullie, an Ottawa resident, registered numerous .ca domain names related to the term “blackberry”. Some of the domain names included the term (e.g. planetblackberry.ca and blackberryshop.ca, among others) while others included variations (e.g. shopcrackberry.ca and bberry.ca).
Though the complaint was not defended, under CIRA’s policy it was incumbent upon RIM to prove its rights, that the dispute domain names were confusingly similar to RIM’s marks and to establish the Registrant’s (Mullie’s) bad faith registration. The Panel easily found similarity between the domain names that include the term “blackberry” and RIM’s marks and its domain name, shopblackberry.com. The Panel also referenced common use of the term “crackberry” as a cultural nickname for RIM’s devices, citing Webster’s Dictionary, to find similarity to shopcrackberry.com. RIM showed a pattern of domain registrations by Mullie that included either registered or common law third party Canadian trademarks and that Mullie had no legitimate interest in the domain names.
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