The UDRP Blog™

In a straightforward, old-fashioned typosquatting dispute, Costco Wholesale Membership Inc., Costco Wholesale Corporation v. Vladimir Snezko , WIPO Case No. D2017-2405 (Andrea Jaeger-Lenz, February 2, 2018), the Panel ordered transfer of the domain costoco.com to the wholesale company Costco. Respondent, which had held the disputed domain since 2000, did not respond to the UDRP complaint. Starting with the first of the three factors necessary for a complainant to prevail in a UDRP dispute, namely, whether the disputed domain is identical or confusingly similar to the complainant's trademark, the Panel noted that "[a] domain name which consists of a common, obvious, or intentional misspelling of a trademark is considered by panels to be confusingly similar to the relevant mark." The Panel found that that minor differences between the disputed domain and Complainant's COSTCO trademark did not obviate the visual and phonetic similarities between them, and thus fo

  In Brother Records, Inc. v. David J. Roberts, Good Vibrations , WIPO Case No. D2017-2287 (John Swinson, January 10, 2018), the Panel transferred the domain beachboys.org to the recording company that owns the intellectual property rights relating to the famous band "The Beach Boys." Respondent is a tribute band that performs songs by "The Beach Boys."  Despite the fact that it registered the disputed domain name way back in 2002 and included a disclaimer on its website negating affiliation with The Beach Boys, there was no "Fun Fun Fun" for Respondent in this "Wipe Out" against Respondent. As with all UDRP cases, the Panel examined the three factors necessary for a UDRP complainant to prevail. First, as to whether the disputed domain is identical or confusingly similar to a mark in which Complainant owns trademark rights, the Panel readily found similarity, noting that the absence of "The" in the disputed domain name does not diff