ITX sarl, and Ziad M.
Mugraby v. Tom Steiner
Claim Number: FA0809001222737
PARTIES
Complainant is ITX sarl and Ziad M. Mugraby (“Complainant”), represented by Trent
Martinet, of Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP, Colorado,
USA. Respondent is Tom Steiner
(“Respondent”), represented by Steven L Rinehart,
REGISTRAR AND DISPUTED DOMAIN NAME
The domain name at issue is <beirut.com>, registered with Tlds, LLC d/b/a Srsplus.
PANEL
The undersigned certifies that he or she has acted independently and
impartially and to the best of his or her knowledge has no known conflict in
serving as Panelist in this proceeding.
James Bridgeman as Panelist.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Complainant submitted a Complaint to the National Arbitration Forum
electronically on September 2, 2008; the
National Arbitration Forum received a hard copy of the Complaint on September 5, 2008.
On September 3, 2008, Tlds, LLC d/b/a Srsplus confirmed by e-mail to
the National Arbitration Forum that the <beirut.com> domain name is
registered with Tlds, LLC d/b/a Srsplus
and that the Respondent is the current registrant of the name. T Tlds, LLC
d/b/a Srsplus has verified that Respondent is bound by the Tlds, LLC d/b/a Srsplus registration agreement
and has thereby agreed to resolve domain-name disputes brought by third parties
in accordance with ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the
“Policy”).
On September 10, 2008, a
Notification of Complaint and Commencement of Administrative Proceeding (the
“Commencement Notification”), setting a deadline of September 30, 2008 by which
Respondent could file a Response to the Complaint, was transmitted to
Respondent via e-mail, post and fax, to all entities and persons listed on
Respondent’s registration as technical, administrative and billing contacts,
and to postmaster@beirut.com by e-mail.
A timely Response was received in electronic format only, and not in
hard copy on September 30, 2008. The Response is therefore incomplete under
the National ICANN’s Rule 5.
An Additional Submission was received from Complainant on October 7,
2008 and found to be timely and complete pursuant to the National Arbitration
Forum’s Supplemental Rule 7.
A second Additional Submission was received from Complainant on October
9, 2008. This submission was not in
compliance with Supplemental Rule 7, which only allows one additional
submission or response to additional submission to be filed per party. This was
not admitted as Complainant had already exercised its right to file Additional
Submissions.
There was a further round of submissions being “Response to
Additional Submission submitted by Respondent on October 14, 2008 and a letter
from Complainant dated October 15, 2008. These have not been admitted as
continuous rounds of argumentive submissions prejudice the procedure under the
Policy.
On October 10, 2008, pursuant to Complainant’s
request to have the dispute decided by a single-member Panel, the National
Arbitration Forum appointed James Bridgeman as Panelist.
RELIEF SOUGHT
Complainant requests that the domain name be transferred from
Respondent to Complainant.
PARTIES’ CONTENTIONS
A.
Complainant
Complainant
submits that the domain name <beirut.com>
is identical or confusingly similar to the service mark BEIRUT.COM in which
Complainant has rights, that Respondent has no rights or legitimate interest in
said domain name and that the domain name has been registered and is being used
in bad faith.
Complainant
registered the domain name in dispute on July 12, 1995. Since October of 1995,
Complainant has utilized <beirut.com>
as a source identifier to provide an e-mail portal for thousands of its users.
Beginning in 2000, Complainant expanded its <beirut.com> business to include a discussion board, a place
to post photos of social events around Beirut; hosting various content for a
Beirut- based animal rights group and its supporters; and providing a large
chat network over IRC for its customers.
Consumers
throughout
On
July 11, 2008, Complainant discovered that its <beirut.com> domain name had been fraudulently transferred
without Complainant's knowledge or authority, as detailed below. Respondent's
unlawful use of the identical mark <beirut.com>
is infringing the mark rights and goodwill Complainant has worked so hard
to create in <beirut.com>.
Complainant
submits that Respondent has no rights to the domain name <beirut.com> since Respondent fraudulently transferred that
domain name from Complainant's account, and then fraudulently registered it in
order to benefit from the goodwill that Complainant has developed over nearly
13 years and/or to pursue other unlawful purposes.
Specifically,
on or about July 9, 2008, Respondent unlawfully logged into Complainant's eNom,
Inc. ("eNom") domain name registration account. After gaining
unlawful access, Respondent changed the e-mail address associated with the
account to itx.domains@gmx.com, and
disabled the registrar-lock option that guards against an unauthorized
transfer, which had been turned on. Subsequently, and within minutes, eNom
received from the new e-mail address an EPP request for transfer of the domain
name, which it automatically granted. TLDS, LLC d/b/a SRSplus/ Network
Solutions ("SRSplus") received a request with eNom's EPP from the
same user and sent it for approval, again to the new e-mail address itx.domains@gmx.com. Respondent approved
the transfer, and Complainant's domain name was fraudulently transferred to
SRSplus under Respondent's name. Complainant has never had any relationship to
the e-mail address itx.domains@gmx.com
(a fact confirmed by the owner of this domain, as discussed below) and would
have had no reason to change its contact e-mail address to itx.domains@gmx.com, an address it does
not control and never has controlled. Data obtained from eNom, which
Complainant submits supports the facts above, is attached as an annex to the
Complaint.
Complainant
states that when it learned of this fraudulent transfer — which resulted in the
hijacking of Complainant's most valued asset — it immediately researched the
WHOIS database to determine who had unlawfully transferred and registered
Complainant's <beirut.com>
domain name. This research revealed that the domain name <beirut.com>
was registered to Respondent.
Complainant
has never heard of Respondent and Complainant certainly did not authorize
Respondent to transfer and register <beirut.com>.
Upon
confirming that its domain name and mark had been registered by Respondent,
Complainant immediately notified eNom about the fraudulent transfer and
unlawful registration. Subsequently, Complainant's attorneys sent demand
letters to eNom, with supporting evidence, requesting a reversal of the
unlawful transfer. However, eNom has refused to reverse the transfer even
though Complainant informed eNom that the transfer had been fraudulently
authorized and provided eNom with evidence to support that fact.
Complainant
also promptly notified SRSplus about the fraudulent transfer and subsequent
unlawful registration of <beirut.com>,
and sent a demand letter to SRSplus through its attorneys. SRSplus has
similarly refused to restore to Complainant its <beirut.com> domain name and mark that it has used for nearly
13 years.
Historic
WHOIS records prove Complainant's continuity of ownership of the <beirut.com>
domain name going back many years, and also that Complainant's registration of <beirut.com> was current on the
date of the theft. Complainant has submitted documents that it submits are
records going back to June 2000 showing ownership of <beirut.com> by Complainant and showing Complainant's
registration of <beirut.com>
to be current through July 11, 2009.
Complainant submits that these records further support Complainant's
claim that it has expended substantial resources in developing goodwill
associated with its mark and domain name <beirut.com>
in an effort to brand its quality web-based services.
Today,
when consumers in
Moreover,
Complainant submits that Respondent has intentionally replicated Complainant's
website content and functionality in an attempt to mislead and convert
consumers from Complainant's website for commercial gain and/or in an attempt
to dilute or tarnish Complainant's mark. Complainant has submitted screenshots
of websites historically and recently operated by each of the Parties to
illustrate the similarity of content. Complainant submits that such conduct on
the part of Respondent is unlawful and Respondent should not be allowed to
benefit from the goodwill of Complainant's mark.
Complainant
submits that Respondent's unauthorized access of Complainant's domain name
account and its fraudulent transfer and registration of the domain name <beirut.com> is, by itself,
powerful evidence of bad faith. Moreover, Respondent's replication of
Complainant's website content demonstrates a clear bad faith intent to benefit
from the goodwill that Complainant has developed over many years and/or to
pursue other unlawful purposes. Respondent is fraudulently using the goodwill
of Complainant's beirut.com mark to confuse
Complainant's website users/consumers into using Respondent's website as
opposed to Complainant's.
In
addition, Respondent's bad faith transfer and registration of <beirut.com> has allowed it to
obtain information about thousands of Complainant's website users/consumers.
Every day that <beirut.com> is
unlawfully possessed and fraudulently operated by Respondent, Complainant's
website users/consumers are mistakenly entering their private information into
Respondent's fraudulent website (believing it to be Complainant's website)
enabling Respondent to collect usernames, e-mail addresses, passwords, and
other sensitive information about Complainant's website users/consumers. Such
use is not only harming Complainant, it also has great potential for harming
Complainant's website users/consumers. Complainant recently posted a notice to
its customers on beirutone.com and also in
the
Complainant
submits that Respondent's registration and usage of <beirut.com> in bad faith is further evidenced by the
obviously false information it has posted on the website to which the domain
name at issue resolves. On the "About Us" page on the website
Respondent lists two "Contact Address[es]" for their "Beirut
Office[s]."
Neither
of these addresses is located in
The
second address is in
The
current <beirut.com>
"About Us" page also claims that it operated by a subsidiary of
United Internet AG, a German company with worldwide operations including in the
B. Respondent
Respondent submits that there is no basis for transferring the domain <beirut.com> to Complainant. Complainant is essentially trying to make a
claim for civil conversion in this arbitration action, which is not cognizable
under the Policy.
Respondent submits that “Complainant is lying about his (sic) association with Respondent”. Complainant and Respondent were business
partners in
Respondent denies that Complainant has “owned the subject domain name <beirut.com> since it was
registered,” as Complainant alleges.
Rather, Respondent submits that Complainant was hired by Respondent to
host the disputed domain for the Respondent and design the website hosted on
the disputed domain.
Respondent asserts that he has rights in, and is the rightful owner of,
the disputed domain name in this case.
The Complainant’s principal, Mr. Ziad Mugraby, and Respondent were
business partners and worked together for many years.
In early 1995, Respondent desired to start running a website on the
disputed domain. The Internet was new at
the time, and Respondent did not know how to manage the disputed domain, design
the website, host the website, or do anything else necessary to start a
business based on the disputed domain.
Respondent contacted his friend at the time, Mr. Ziad Mugraby, who was
more familiar with technology and communication than Respondent was at the
time, and both Respondent and Complainant decided to move forward with a joint
venture in which Respondent would contribute the disputed domain, some money,
and his time and ideas. Complainant and
his employees, Bilal and Salam, would design and host the website.
It was always understood between Complainant and Respondent that
Respondent owned the disputed domain, and that Complainant was only the account
manager.
Respondent states that he thought that Complainant was a reliable
business partner until 2008, when Respondent discovered that Complainant was
stealing a huge amount of revenue earned on the disputed domain through Google
Adsense, and was not paying Respondent his share of the profits.
Respondent claims that he immediately stopped doing business with
Complainant, and changed the DNSs associated with the Disputed Domain.
Respondent alleges that Complainant tried several times to hack into
Respondent’s account to try and steal the disputed domain from Respondent by
initiating transfers. An employee named Gerald Gorman of the registrar of
the disputed domain, SRSPlus, contacted Respondent during the pendency of this
dispute and informed Respondent that Complainant had tried repeatedly to change
personal information with SRSPlus via telephone, and repeatedly attempted to
impersonate the Respondent in this action.
Respondent moved the disputed domain to SRSPlus, a subsidiary of Network
Solutions, to try and avoid Complainant’s unlawful attempts to steal the
disputed domain from his previous registrar.
The former registrar of the disputed domain, eNom, looked into Ziad’s
allegations and concluded that Respondent was the rightful owner of the
disputed domain and that there was no evidence Respondent had hijacked the disputed
domain as Complainant alleges.
The fact that Ziad and Respondent were partners is further evidenced by
the registration shown for the domain name <Zikra.com>, showing both Ziad
and Respondent as registrants details of which are annexed as an exhibit to the
Response.
Respondent states that the disputed domain name was locked with SRSPlus
after Complainant threatened them, but then did nothing. The disputed domain name was released by
SRSPlus only to again be locked after Complainant filed the Complaint in this
action.
Although Complainant and Respondent did not memorialize their
partnership in writing, the partnership existed and Complainant and Respondent
were in communication for more than ten years.
Respondent has attached as an exhibit to the Response documents that he
claims are copies of invoices sent from Complainant to Respondent for payment
of various websites Respondent hosted with Complainant. Respondent claims that he was expected to pay
the registration costs each year for the disputed domain. Respondent has also attached documents that
he claims to be copies of photographs in Respondent’s possession of Complainant
which Complainant sent to Respondent when they were on friendlier terms.
Respondent claims that Complainant has attempted to make all sorts of
irrelevant and untrue allegations in the Complaint, including that Respondent’s
alleged bad faith registration is evidenced by alleged inaccuracies in
Respondent’s addresses shown on the website established at the disputed domain
name address. Complainant makes the
unsupported statement that Respondent “has had no dealings with these [the
Respondent refers to Complaint’s assertion that Respondent has somehow
represented that a German conglomerate providing free email services on the
Internet has rights in the disputed domain name, and this somehow establishes
Complaint’s alleged rights. Respondent
merely used the mail server MX RECORDS provided by this German company to offer
email accounts to visitors of the disputed domain. Respondent never represented that partnership
existed with any German corporations.
Complainant focuses on similarities between Complainant’s website
<beiruitone.com> and the domain name at issue, but these similarities, if
any, are irrelevant as Respondent admits Complainant has always had the content
shown on both domains, but asserts this content was developed for Respondent’s
benefit pursuant to a business relationship which Complainant betrayed.
Respondent submits that the present dispute involves matters not
suitable for resolution under the Policy. The National Arbitration Forum should
not involve itself with this civil dispute between the parties. See
The Center for
Computer Technology et al v. Domain Listing Agent, NAF Case No. 495379 (2005) (“This case potentially
involves a fraudulent registration transfer, which is likely a dispute that
should be determined in a court of law. Thus, the Panel finds that this case is
outside the scope of the Policy.”) “The
jurisdiction of this Panel is limited to providing a remedy in cases of
‘abusive registration of domain names’, also known as ‘cybersquatting.’” Weber-Stephen
Products Co. v. Armitage Hardware, WIPO Case No. D2000-0187.
Even in situations where a disputed domain has been unlawfully
converted as Complainant alleges in this controversy (and Respondent denies),
the Policy does not permit the NAF to adjudicate the allegations. Jimmy
Alison v.
“Clearly Complainant is aggrieved and, if his allegations are correct,
rightfully so. However the Policy is not designed to deal with
allegations of fraud and theft. It is a limited Policy, dealing with the
bad faith registration and use of domain names to profit from the goodwill
established by a trademark owner’s rights in a mark. There is generally
no hearing available, no opportunity to examine witnesses, no opportunity to conduct
cross-examination, and no ability in the Panel to effectively evaluate
credibility. While the Panel has little doubt that Complainant has been
wronged, this is simply not an adequate forum to address those wrongs.”
It is well-settled that arbitration in an inappropriate forum to bring
fraud and conversion claims. The panel
in Family Watchdog LLC v. Lester Schweiss, WIPO Case No. D2008-0183 (April
23, 2008), considered that such disputes are more appropriately decided by
traditional means, as they turn on questions of fact that cannot be resolved on
the basis of the Parties’ statements and documents. See also Clinomics Biosciences, Inc. v. Simplicity Software, Inc.,
WIPO Case No. D2001-0823.
Respondent argues that Complainant offers very little proof of anything,
relying almost exclusively in the Complaint upon unsupported allegations of
Complainant’s counsel.
Because Complainant maintains he has always had rights in the Disputed
Domain, Complainant believes his use of the site now to offer email and searching
services is bona fide.
Complainant cannot satisfy paragraph4(a)(i) of the UDRP because the
word “
Respondent acquired rights or legitimate interests in the disputed
domain by virtue of the ownership Respondent had in the disputed domain. Respondent, in fact, asserts that Complainant
has no legitimate rights or interests in the disputed domain.
Complainant likewise cannot satisfy paragraph 4(a)(i-ii) of the Policy
because Respondent did not register, and is not using, the disputed domain in
bad faith.
Finally Respondent submits that paragraph 1 of the
Rules defines reverse domain name hijacking as “using the Policy in bad faith
to attempt to deprive a registered domain name holder of a domain name.” Ultimately, Complainant’s actions meet the
test this Panel should apply because Complainant has attempted to use the
Policy to settle a civil claim for conversion.
C. Additional Submissions
Neither Mr. Mugraby nor anyone else at Complainant has ever met anyone
named Tom Steiner. And, in fact,
Respondent may not even be named Tom Steiner.
Rather, it appears Respondent has adopted that pseudonym in order to
maintain his anonymity in the fraudulent transfer of <beirut.com>
from Complainant to himself, and for these proceedings in an attempt
to hide his unlawful activity from the Forum.
Respondent has given a false address.
Respondent’s attorney has never personally met Respondent.
A person called Mr. Gerald A. Steiner lives at the
(i.) He lives at the
(ii.) He has no brother named
“Tom Steiner”;
(iii.) He has never had any involvement in the domain name or the business of <beirut.com>.
Complainant submits that Mr. Steiner’s affidavit, by itself, proves
conclusively that Respondent has attempted to deceive the Panel.
The only “evidence” that Respondent is Tom Steiner is an unnotarized
declaration which, unverified by anyone, amounts to nothing more than a piece
of paper. Contrary to his express
representation in the Response, Respondent has no relation to Mr. Gerald
Steiner, who lives at the address Respondent provided to the Panel and to the
Registrar of the domain name. Moreover,
Respondent provides no explanation why that address was listed on the website
as being in Michigan, rather than Missouri, nor for what “business” association
he has with the addresses for the deli or the hotel in Alexander City, Alabama,
nor for why he falsely claims to be “a major branch of United Internet,” a
German company as explained in the Complaint.
When Complainant’s counsel contacted counsel for Respondent, he confirmed
that he had never met Respondent in person and that he could not verify that
Respondent was in fact “Tom Steiner.”
In short, the conclusion is inescapable – Respondent has appeared
before the Forum under a false identity.
It necessarily follows from the above that all of the other allegations
and evidence of Respondent are false as well.
Complainant proceeded to rebut Respondent’s submissions. The most
significant of which are:-
Complainant is a limited liability company formed, owned, and operated
by the Mugraby family. No one named Tom Steiner has or ever had any involvement
with the company or its business.
Although the Response claims that “[i]n early 1995, Respondent desired
to start running a website on the Disputed Domain,” Resp. ¶ 5, the Internet did
not exist in its current form at that time, and connectivity was particularly
difficult from
In October 1995, Complainant launched an Internet service provider in
In 2002, Complainant commissioned Samer Shoueiry to design the first
web interface for a new portal under the beirut.com brand. Complainant also
hired SurfXpress, an Internet Services company, to develop a custom Qmail
configuration so that the <beirut.com> mail service and
the new website for <beirut.com> could be located on
their servers, thus giving it total autonomy from Destination.com.lb. Affidavit of Samer Shoueiry has been
submitted with the Additional Submissions.
Contrary to Respondent’s claims of involvement in the business of a <beirut.com>
website since 1995, the website <beirut.com> did not
exist at all until after it was installed on the servers of
SurfXpress in the Spring of 2003.
Respondent includes, a copy WHOIS record for the website zikra.com,
which purports to show an association between Mr. Ziad Mugraby and Tom
Steiner. The <zikra.com> domain
name is registered and owned by the principal of a Lebanese company. When
Respondent gained access to Complainant’s Dotster/RegisterAPI reseller account,
as described below, he temporarily altered the WHOIS record of Zikra.com by
inserting “Beirut Inc., Ziad Mugraby, and Tom Steiner” to falsely suggest a
connection.
Dotster/RegisterAPI
(http://www.dotster.com) is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar
that Complainant maintains a reseller account with. On September 18, 2008 the account was
unlawfully accessed by Respondent using a password retrieval tool on the
company’s website that mailed the account password to the compromised e-mail
address ziad@beirut.com. Respondent
then registered 24 domain names for periods ranging between 1 year and 10 years
and charged over $1200 to the ITX credit card on file with
Dotster/RegisterAPI. Complainant then
listed said domain names that included a number of domain names that were
offensive and included a combination of the names Ziad and Mugraby with
offensive “four letter words”. After Complainant contacted
Dotster/RegisterAPI and explained to
them the situation, Dotster/RegisterAPI cancelled the registration of all 24
domain names and issued a refund to Complainant.
Subsequently, the WHOIS record of <zikra.com> was corrected and
the names of “Beirut Inc.” and Tom Steiner, which Respondent had fraudulently
inserted, were removed. In reality, no Tom Steiner has any association with the
<zikra.com> domain.
Respondent has attached some invoices, which he claims are invoices
from Complainant to Respondent. In fact,
these invoices were issued by Dotster/RegisterAPI to ITX. Respondent obtained
them by phishing during the time he briefly took control of Complainant’s
Dotster/RegisterAPI account as described above. In reality, Complainant never
did business with Tom Steiner or sent him any invoices.
Finally, Respondent attaches some pictures of Mr. Mugraby, perhaps the
most disturbing exhibit in the Response.
Respondent obtained these photographs by phishing the account password
from Mr. Mugraby’s Friendster account (http://www.friendster.com), a social
networking site. Respondent was able to
gain unauthorized access to that account by using the e-mail address
ziad@beirut.com. The four pictures
Respondent exhibited all were profile pictures on this account. These pictures
prove nothing, other than a further invasion of Complainant’s privacy.
The Panel should not ignore the objectives of the UDRP by allowing
itself to be persuaded by Respondent that this case is outside the scope of the UDRP or the Forum’s authority to
decide it. Whatever else Respondent may be liable for – conversion, theft, etc.
– there can be no doubt that Complainant has proven the elements of its UDRP
claim. Respondent is an imposter, a
domain name pirate, and he is currently benefiting from the goodwill of
Complainant’s mark by tricking Internet users into using the imposter
beirut.com Internet site that Respondent currently controls.
Respondent also argues that
Complainant does not have trademark rights in the word “
In addition to utilizing the
<beirut.com>
domain name as an Internet protocol address to direct users to its
Lebanese Internet portal, Complainant utilizes the <beirut.com>
domain name as a service mark to promote its services. For example, as stated in the Complaint,
Complainant utilizes the mark <beirut.com> to provide
Internet, e-mail, and other web-based services to thousands of its website
users. True and accurate copies of
Complainant’s website where it continuously utilized the mark <beirut.com>
to identify its Internet, e-mail, and other web-based services are
attached as an exhibit to the Complaint.
The screen shots of Complainant’s website in that exhibit clearly
illustrate that Complainant uses BEIRUT.COM as a service mark. For instance, such screen shots illustrate
the fact that Complainant’s BEIRUT.COM mark and its associated logo are
prominently displayed on each page of the website. The primary reason for such placement of the
service mark BEIRUT.COM is to identify Complainant as the source of services to
its loyal users of Complainant’s Internet, e-mail, and other web-based
services.
Respondent argues that
Complainant has not presented evidence to the Forum showing its service mark
has acquired secondary meaning. But
Complainant should not be required to prove secondary meaning because
Complainant’s <beirut.com> mark is not generic or merely
descriptive. Rather, Complainant’s
service mark truly has the ability to create a distinct impression in the minds
of its website users. Even if such
service mark was generic or merely descriptive, however, Complainant has the
ability to prove secondary meaning through survey evidence because thousands of
its website users immediately think of Complainant’s Internet, e-mail, and
other web-based services when they see the service mark beirut.com. Complainant
has not presented such evidence because the urgency of filing for the requested
relief did not provide Complainant with the necessary time needed to gather
meaningful survey evidence showing secondary meaning. Moreover, the costs of gathering survey
evidence to show such secondary meaning are not warranted at this point. Complainant should not have to incur such
costs in a proceeding caused by Respondent’s bad faith. Nonetheless, Complainant will present further
evidence of secondary meaning to the Forum, if requested.
Finally, Complainant is
independently entitled to prevail as a sanction for Respondent’s bad faith
conduct in this administrative proceeding.
Courts have inherent equitable powers to dismiss an action or enter a
default judgment against a party as a sanction for abusive litigation practices
and a panel established under the Policy has similar jurisdiction.
ICANN Rule 13 allows the Forum to hold a hearing if it determines “in
its sole discretion and as an exceptional matter, that such a hearing is
necessary for deciding the complaint.”
If the Forum has any doubt that the Respondent has filed his Response
under a false identity or if it has any doubt that Respondent’s allegations are
completely false, the surest way to resolve those doubts is to require
Respondent to appear in person at a hearing before the Forum. Mr. Ziad Mugraby, along with counsel, is
willing to appear at a hearing.
FINDINGS
Complainant has rights in a service mark
BEIRUT.COM which it has in the past used in connection with Internet based
information services and email services.
The domain name in dispute was originally
registered by Complainant but has since come into the control of Respondent
without the authority or consent of Complainant.
DISCUSSION
Paragraph 15(a) of the Rules for Uniform Domain
Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Rules”) instructs this Panel to “decide a
complaint on the basis of the statements and documents submitted in accordance
with the Policy, these Rules and any rules and principles of law that it deems
applicable.”
Paragraph 4(a) of the Policy requires that the Complainant must prove
each of the following three elements to obtain an order that a domain name
should be cancelled or transferred:
(1) the domain name registered by the Respondent
is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the
Complainant has rights;
(2) the Respondent has no rights or legitimate
interests in respect of the domain name; and
(3) the domain name has been registered and is
being used in bad faith.
Preliminary Procedural Issues relating to the Filing of Submissions
Respondent’s Response was submitted only in electronic format prior to
the Response deadline; a hard copy was received one day late. Thus the Response is not in compliance with
ICANN Rule 5.
Under the National Arbitration Forum’s Supplemental Rule 7,
parties are allowed to submit one additional submission or response to
additional submission each. In this
case, Complainant has submitted two Additional Submissions when Respondent did
not submit any additional submissions.
This Panel is of the view that the submission of the
Response one day late is a de minimis
breach of the procedural rules and does not prejudice either the process or the
Complainant.
The Complainant was entitled to file Additional Submissions
in accordance with National Arbitration Rule 7 and took the opportunity to do so.
It is inappropriate to afford the Complainant yet another bite of the cherry by
filing a second round of Additional Submissions. The Panel has therefore
admitted the first Additional Submission filed by the Complainant but has not
admitted the subsequently filed Additional Submissions, as to allow this is to
prejudice the efficiency of the process.
There was a further round of submissions being “Response to
Additional Submission submitted by Respondent on October 14, 2008 and a letter
from Complainant dated October 15, 2008. These have not been admitted.
Finally, with regard to procedural issues raises,
Complainant has requested an Oral Hearing. Complainant has succeeded in establishing its
case on the basis of written submissions and it was not necessary to convene an
Oral Hearing to decide the matter on the civil standard of the balance of
probabilities.
Preliminary Issue - The Scope of the Policy
There are two further preliminary issues to be addressed in
this Complaint relating to the scope of the Policy. Firstly the question arises
whether there is a bona fide business
dispute between the Parties thus putting the matter outside the relatively
narrow scope of the Policy. Secondly Respondent has submitted that because
there are allegations of fraud and conversion the case is outside the scope of
the Policy.
Addressing the issue of whether there was a business relationship
between the Parties as alleged by Respondent: Respondent asserts that it was a
business partner with Complainant, in that Complainant designed and hosted the
website for the disputed domain name, while Respondent submitted the disputed
domain, money, and ideas. Respondent
further contends that it was understood that Respondent would own the disputed
domain name, and that Complainant would act solely as account manager. Respondent asserts that Complainant stole
revenue garnered through Google Adsense, and was not paying Respondent’s
portion of the profits. Respondent
states that it ceased doing business with Complainant and changed information
associated with the disputed domain name.
Respondent also argues that Complainant attempted to impersonate
Respondent several times and hack Respondent’s account to steal the disputed
domain name. Respondent also asserts
that the former registrar of the disputed domain name, eNom, indicated that
Respondent was the rightful owner.
Respondent submits evidence of communication and invoices documenting
this relationship.
Complainant contends that there was no business relationship, and that
Complainant had never heard of Respondent prior to the instigation of the
instant dispute. Complainant argues that
in 2008, Complainant discovered that its account was hacked and that the
disputed domain name was transferred to Respondent. Complainant claims that the registrar failed
to reverse the allegedly fraudulent transfer.
Moreover, Complainant asserts in its Additional Submission that
Respondent has created false evidence of a business relationship, and used
deceptive technological means to create “evidence” before the Panel, such as
pictures and names of Complainant and its employees, and employees. Complainant states that because there is no
business dispute, what remains is a dispute that is meant to be covered by the
Policy.
One of the primary questions before the Panel is whether or not the
instant case is a business dispute between partners or contractual partners and
therefore potentially outside the scope of the Policy.
There is a clear conflict between the Parties as to whether a business
relationship ever existed between them. This Panel prefers to believe
Complainant’s version of events and finds that the dispute is properly within
the scope of the Policy. The Panel reaches this conclusion because Respondent
has placed incorrect and misleading information on the website established at
the domain address and therefore, in this Panel’s view, Complainant’s denial
that there has been any business relationship between the Parties is more
credible than Respondent’s unsubstantiated claims that there was such a
relationship.
As to the allegations of fraud and conversion, this Panel is of the
view that the Policy is designed to determine issues of bad faith albeit on a
civil standard and stopping short of findings of fraud. If allegations and conversion were always to put
a complaint outside of the scope of the Policy, the Policy would be
ineffective. A panel appointed under the Policy cannot determine whether a
fraud has been committed but in every case it must determine whether a domain
name has been registered and used in bad faith. For that reason this Panel is
of the view that the allegations and counter allegations of fraud and the
allegation of conversion do not put the dispute outside the scope of the Policy
no more than the claim that the domain name was registered in bad faith and the
counter-claim of domain name hi-jacking in this case are inappropriate for
determination on a civil standard by an administrative panel.
For the above reasons this Panel has decided to consider the Complaint
on its merits and leave other matters for other fora as appropriate.
In Junta
de Andalucia Consejeria de Turismo, Comercio y Deporte, Turismo Andaluz, S.A.
v. Andalucía.Com Ltd., D2006-0749,
(WIPO Oct. 13, 2006), a three member panel, Scott Donahey, Presiding, Marino Porzio
and David Perkins, considered the question of a complainant’s rights in a
geographical place name as a trade mark where the Complainant owned a number of
registrations for trademarks incorporating the name ANDALUCIA and ANDALUZ and
the respondent had registered the Internet domain name <andalucia.com>:
In the present case both Complainant and Respondent are using the
geographic indication to provide information services pertaining to the
geographic region which the term describes. Can this be said to be a trademark
use of a term, registered or not, when that term is used in the same manner
that one might use a term in a search engine to find information that resides
somewhere on the Internet? Even if a term has been registered as a mark, can it
really have the status of a mark if it calls to mind not the source of goods or
services, but only a geographic location?
Clearly, a geographic indication can acquire secondary meaning and
serve as an indication of the source of goods or services. “Amazon” calls to
mind not only the river and the geographic region through which it flows, but
also the well-known online retailer. In the
However, the Panel is faced with a situation where Complainant
holds valid service marks issued by the Spanish trademark authorities. Can
ANDALUCIA be said to be the dominant feature of those marks? Although the Panel
believes it is a close call, the Panel concludes that at least as to the A
ANDALUCIA word and design mark, ANDALUCIA is the dominant feature in the mark.
Therefore, the Panel finds that the domain name at issue is confusingly similar
to a mark in which Complainant has rights.”
This Panel accepts this quite recent reasoning of a three member
panel consisting of eminent and very experienced panelists.
Applying this reasoning to the claims in casu: “Beirut” is clearly a geographical designation; Complainant
does not have any registered trademarks or service marks; Complainant claims to
be the owner of the service mark BEIRUT.COM, making no claim to the word
“BEIRUT” simpliciter; Complainant’s
claimed rights arise from use of BEIRUT.COM in the same manner as one might use
the term in a search engine to find information that resides somewhere on the
Internet. This is the type of situation that was precisely described in the
above <andalucia.com> case.
However, Complainant has in addition established an e-ail service
and as such,in the view of this Panel,has acquired service mark rights in the
name. The rights may not be strong and Complainant has acknowledged that it
could have provided more evidence of the reputation that it has developed in
the use of the BEIRUT.COM mark, but Complainant has established rights sufficient
to satisfy the Policy.
Complainant has therefore satisfied the first element of the test
in paragraph 4(a) of the Policy.
On the evidence adduced, it is clear to this
Panel that Respondent has no rights or legitimate interest in the domain name.
The version of events given by Complainant is more credible and it would appear
from the evidence adduced by Complainant that Respondent has fabricated his
claims to any business connection with Complainant and rights in the domain
name.
Complainant has not granted Respondent any
right to use the BEIRUT.COM name in connection with Internet services.
Respondent has claimed a business connection with Complainant but in the view
of this Panel Complainant has successfully refuted this claim.
Respondent is not making any bona fide business use of the domain
name. This is illustrated by the deliberate inaccuracies posted on the website
established at the address.
Complainant has made out a prima facie case that Respondent has no
such rights or legitimate interest in the domain name, this shifts the burden
of proof onto Respondent and Respondent has failed to discharge this burden.
It follows that Complainant has succeeded in
the second element of the test in paragraph 4(a) of the Policy.
While there is a clear conflict in the
evidence and submissions in this case, on the balance of probabilities
Complainant’s version of the facts is to be preferred as it stands up better to
analysis.
Complainant is based in
By contrast, Respondent appears to be based
in the
Complainant has provided affidavit evidence
that the domain name had been transferred to Respondent without the permission
of Complainant at a time when Complainant was the registered owner of the
domain name. How exactly this was achieved may be for another forum.
On the basis of the evidence adduced and on
the balance of probabilities, Complainant has established that Respondent has
registered and is using the domain name in bad faith.
Reverse
Domain Name Hi-jacking
In the view of this Panel, Respondent has
failed to prove his allegations of Reverse Domain Name Hi-Jacking. On the
evidence adduced and on the balance of probabilities, Complainant has a bona fide belief in its rights to the
domain name at issue.
DECISION
Having established all three elements required under the ICANN Policy,
the Panel concludes that relief shall be GRANTED.
Accordingly, it is Ordered that the <beirut.com> domain name be TRANSFERRED
from Respondent to Complainant.
James Bridgeman, Panelist
Dated: October 24, 2008
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