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Thrifty Car Rentals Loses Fight over Thrifty.ca
In a recent decision under the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, a three-member panel found the complaint by Thrifty, Inc. against the registrant of the domain names thrifty.ca and wwwthrifty.ca to be unsuccessful, notwithstanding that the complainant owned the registered trademarks for THRIFTY and THRIFTY RENT A CAR in association with car rental services.
The panel found that the requirement for the domain names to be confusingly similar to the complainant’s trademarks was not met because: (i) given its descriptive and general nature, use of the word “thrifty” by the registrant did not necessarily point to the complainant’s particular use of the word; and (ii) it would be clear to a user that the registrant’s website (which essentially provided a directory of low-cost services) was not a part of Thrifty and was not a part of a car rental business.
The descriptive nature of the word was also taken by the panel as sufficient to rebut the assertion that the registrant did not have a legitimate interest in the domain names, which would also have to be established for a successful claim.
Finally, the panel found that the requirement of bad-faith registration was not met because, among other things, unlike with the ICANN UDRP, one must establish not only that the registration has the effect of disrupting the trademark owner’s business, but that this was also the primary purpose of the registrant in registering the domain name, which was not the case here.
For a copy of the decision, visit: