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[wg-b] Reverse hijacking by the big guy against the small business person.
Dear Francis:
Looking forward to seeing you in Yokohama.
I'm writing to you today with respect to a clear case of attempted reverse
hijacking. My friend has been operating since 1984 using a trademark
consisting of a descriptive word followed by "Group". His .com domain was
issued in February of 1996.
He has found other uses of his descriptive term combined with a third
descriptive term by a company operating since 1851.
Now another firm using the descriptive term is suing him for US$10^6 and
wants something like 10^6 in compensation even if he transfers the domain
to the plaintiff. Said firm holds the descriptive term + .com.
I believe the UDRP would find:
1. The domain is not confusingly similar.
2. The defendant (in this suit) has long standing legitimate interests in
respect to the domain name.
3. The deferent did not register and/or use it in bad faith.
It is clear case of a multi billion dollar company with a weak descriptive
TM trying to bulldoze a small business person into submission. (SBA, are
you listening?)
What can he do? Can he initiate a UDRP administrative dispute request?
Personal regards, BobC