| [ga] Re: FYI: Final WIPO-2 Report released
 From: http://wipo2.wipo.int/process2/report/html/report.html 59. Several cases regarding place names within countries also have been filed with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center under the UDRP.[251] Two of these cases that involved city names have received much attention. These two cases concerned the domain names barcelona.com and stmoritz.com. By decision of August 4, 2000, the complaint regarding barcelona.com was upheld and, by decision of August 17, 2000, the complaint regarding stmoritz.com was denied.[252] Other more recent such cases filed with WIPO concerned the domain names lapponia.org/lapponia.net (complaint granted),[253] portofhelsinki.com (complaint denied),[254] portofhamina.com (complaint denied),[255] brisbanecity.com (complaint denied),[256] brisbane.com (complaint denied),[257] olkiluoto.com/olkiluoto.net (complaint denied),[258] rouen.com/rouen.net (complaint denied)[259] and arena-verona.com (complaint denied).[260] 260.   It should be noted that the 
complaints in many of the court and UDRP cases referred to above were based on 
the alleged abuse of a trademark registered in the name of the complainant and 
incorporating the place name subject to the dispute.  Furthermore, usually 
the domain names were deemed infringing in light of the nature of the activity 
conducted under the domain name and the motivation of the registrants.  The 
cases therefore do not necessarily stand for the proposition that the 
registration of a city name or the name of a region, as such, is to be deemed 
abusive. ** end ** Shouldn't each of the 3 prongs of the udrp (tm / 
lack of legitimate interest / bad faith) be seperate entities rather than 
influencing each other? Barcelona never held a live tm for "barcelona" as I 
recall. If I read that correctly, it implies that if lack 
of legitimate interest or bad faith is found that the strength of the tm 
doesn't really matter - that seems at odds with the UDRP rules. Why bother with 3 seperate tests if you can imply 
guilt in all of them from just one. Regards Paul Cotton |