Richard Gary Enterprises
d/b/a The Gary Group v. Gino Sesto
Claim Number: FA0909001284386
PARTIES
Complainant is Richard Gary Enterprises d/b/a The Gary
Group (“Complainant”), represented by
Gregory J. Sater, of Rutter Hobbs & Davidoff Incorporated,
REGISTRAR AND DISPUTED DOMAIN NAME
The domain name at issue is <thegarygroup.com>, registered with Name.com Llc.
PANEL
The undersigned certifies that she has acted independently and
impartially and to the best of her knowledge has no known conflict in serving
as Panelist in this proceeding.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Complainant submitted a Complaint to the National Arbitration Forum
electronically on September 15, 2009; the
National Arbitration Forum received a hard copy of the Complaint on September 16, 2009.
On September 16, 2009, Name.com Llc confirmed by e-mail to the
National Arbitration Forum that the <thegarygroup.com> domain name is
registered with Name.com Llc and that the
Respondent is the current registrant of the name. Name.com Llc
has verified that Respondent is bound by the Name.com
Llc 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 18,
A Response was received on October 22,
2009. However, because a hard copy of
the Response was not received by the Response deadline, this Response was not
timely and has been determined to be deficient under ICANN Rule #5.
On October 27, 2009 Complainant filed an additional submission to the
complaint which was timely according to The Forum’s Supplemental Rule #7.
On November 2, 2009 Respondent submitted an additional response to the
complaint. It was received in a timely manner according to The Forum’s
Supplemental Rule #7.
On October 29, 2009, pursuant to Complainant’s
request to have the dispute decided by a single-member Panel, the National
Arbitration Forum appointed
RELIEF SOUGHT
Complainant requests that the domain name be transferred from
Respondent to Complainant.
PARTIES’ CONTENTIONS
A. Complainant
In this proceeding Complainant is The Gary Group, an advertising agency
specializing in the music industry. The
Complainant is also the owner since 1998 of the domain name
<garygroup.com> and the website attached to this domain name has been
used since that date.
Richard Gary Enterprises d/b/a The Gary Group is the owner and the bona fide senior user in commerce of THE
GARY GROUP trade name. Complainant provided as Exhibit B copies of the registration
from the Los Angeles County Recorder’s Office dated May 2, 1996 confirming
Richard Gary’s use of the THE GARY GROUP name in business since June 1978 and a
registration dates September 2, 2009 showing the current d/b/a renewal.
Since its creation in 1978, Complainant has become a well-known
advertising agency and a market leader in its sector of activity. Therefore,
Complainant’s unregistered trademark THE GARY GROUP has become highly
recognized by the relevant customer base, companies and individuals in the
music industry. Moreover, Complainant does advertise its services under THE
GARY GROUP mark online, as well as in publications.
Complainant asserts that the mark THE GARY GROUP has acquired a
secondary meaning given the 32 years of public use of the mark.
Regarding the confusing similarity to Complainant’s trademark,
Complainant’s finds that the domain name in dispute <thegarygroup.com> is confusingly similar to the
<garygroup.com> domain name registered by Complainant. Moreover, the
disputed domain name is identical to THE GARY GROUP trademark and trade name
owner by Complainant.
Complainant has not licensed or otherwise permitted Respondent to use
its mark THE GARY GROUP or any similar name thereto nor has it licensed or
otherwise permitted Respondent to apply for or use any domain name
incorporating its mark or any confusingly similar name. Moreover, Respondent’s
business identity has never been known as “The Gary Group” and Respondent has
never acquired trademarks or service marks in such name.
In Complainant’s opinion there is clear evidence that Respondent was
trying to free ride on its goodwill by registering the disputed domain name.
The Respondent is not currently using the domain name in connection
with a bona fide offer of goods and
services, nor is it engaging in a legitimate non commercial or fair use.
As for registration and use in bad faith, Complainant points out that
the Respondent is a former employee of The Gary Group. He has worked for
Complainant for five (5) years and The Gary Group terminated its employment in
May 2008 due to its unprofessionalism in his interactions with clients, its
behavior towards other employees and the suspicion that he was selling
promotional items given by clients.
After Respondent left The Gary Group, he offered an employee five
hundred dollars ($500.00) to give him the access password to his account in
order to allegedly retrieve The Gary Group contact list. The attempt failed
because of the size of the data.
In the light of the above mentioned circumstances, Complainant believes
that there can be no doubt as to whether the Respondent registered the disputed
domain name in bad faith.
Moreover, Complainant asserts that Respondent used the domain name in
bad faith because its aim was to divert Internet users to Complainant’s
competitors and that this amounts to disruption of business.
B. Respondent
The Respondent sent a late response and is therefore not in compliance
with ICANN Rule #5.
In his response he puts forward the argument that Complainant has no
registered trademark in the name “The Gary Group” and cannot show any rights to
a common law mark.
Moreover, Respondent points out that there are numerous other entities
with similar names and therefore Complainant cannot show that the name has
become distinctive of this particular source.
Respondent highlights the fact that he was employed by The Gary Group
for eight (8) years and that his contract was terminated for completely
different reasons than the ones put forward by Complainant. He also asserts
that he did not try to recover The Gary Group contact list, but was merely
trying to retrieve emails and credit card details that were on his work email
account.
Respondent believes that Complainant did not prove that the
registration of the disputed domain name disrupted his business and that
internet users have actually been confused.
C. Additional Submissions
On October 27, 2009 Complainant submitted an additional submission
where he disproved Respondent’s arguments. In particular, Complainant supplied
further documents in order to prove that its company has been established and
has been using the trade name The Gary Group for a long time.
Moreover, Complainant points out that even though there might be plenty
of other businesses bearing the same name, none of them is established in the
same field of activity.
On November 1st, 2009 Respondent filed an additional
submission where he rebutted several Complainants’ arguments, notably on its
interpretation of the case law.
FINDINGS
The Complainant owns an unregistered
trademark THE GARY GROUP, which has acquired a secondary meaning due to its
extensive use since 1978.
The disputed domain name was registered on
March 20, 2009 by Respondent, a former employee 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 Issue: Deficient
Response
Respondent has provided a Response
that was deficient because the National Arbitration Forum has determined that a
hard copy of the Response was not received before the Response
deadline. In such circumstances the
Panel may decide whether or not to consider Respondent’s submission, or the
amount of weight to give to the Response, because it is not in compliance
with ICANN Rule 5. See Telstra Corp. v. Chu, D2000-0423 (WIPO June 21, 2000) (finding
that any weight to be given to the lateness of the response is solely in the
discretion of the panelist); see also Bank of Am. Corp. v. NW Free
Cmty. Access, FA 180704 (Nat.
Arb. Forum Sept. 30, 2003)
(refusing to accept the respondent’s deficient response that was only
submitted in electronic form because it would not have affected the outcome had
the Panel considered it). But see Strum v. Nordic Net
Exch. AB, FA 102843 (Nat. Arb. Forum Feb. 21, 2002) (“[R]uling a Response
inadmissible because of formal deficiencies would be an extreme remedy not
consistent with the basic principles of due process. . ."); see also J.W.
Spear & Sons PLC v. Fun League Mgmt., FA 180628 (Nat. Arb. Forum
Oct. 17, 2003) (finding that where the respondent submitted a timely response
electronically, but failed to submit a hard copy of the response on time, “[t]he Panel is of the view that given the technical nature
of the breach and the need to resolve the real dispute between the parties that
this submission should be allowed and given due weight”).
In this
case, the Panel decided to take into account Respondent’s response even though
it was not submitted in time.
Although Complainant does not have a
trademark registration for the THE GARY GROUP mark, the Panel finds that a
trademark registration is not required to satisfy Policy ¶ 4(a)(i). See Artistic Pursuit LLC v.
calcuttawebdevelopers.com, FA 894477
(Nat. Arb. Forum Mar. 8, 2007) (finding that Policy ¶ 4(a)(i)
does not require a trademark registration if a complainant can establish common
law rights in its mark); see also SeekAmerica Networks Inc. v. Masood, D2000-0131 (WIPO Apr. 13,
2000) (finding that the Rules do not require that the complainant's trademark
or service mark be registered by a government authority or agency for such
rights to exist).
Complainant, Richard Gary Enterprises d/b/a
The Gary Group, contends that it has
used the THE GARY GROUP mark continuously in commerce since at least as early
as 1978. Complainant contends that it is
the leading advertising agency working in the music industry, and has
historically worked on two-thirds of the weekly 200 top-selling albums. The Panel believes that Complainant has
established common law rights in the THE GARY GROUP mark for purposes of Policy
¶ 4(a)(i) through the secondary meaning acquired by the THE GARY GROUP mark
after being used continuously in commerce since at least as early as 1978. See
Stellar Call Ctrs. Pty Ltd. v. Bahr, FA 595972 (Nat.
Arb. Forum Dec. 19, 2005) (finding that the complainant established common law
rights in the STELLAR CALL CENTRES mark because the complainant demonstrated
that its mark had acquired secondary meaning); see also Quality Custom Cabinetry, Inc. v. Cabinet Wholesalers,
Inc., FA 115349 (Nat. Arb. Forum Sept. 7, 2002) (finding that the
complainant established common law rights in the mark through continuous use of
the mark since 1995 for the purpose of Policy ¶ 4(a)(i)).
Complainant contends that Respondent’s <thegarygroup.com>
domain name is identical to its THE GARY GROUP mark. The disputed
domain name differs from Complainant’s mark in two ways: (1) the spaces have
been removed from the mark; and (2) the generic top-level domain (“gTLD”)
“.com” has been added to the end of the mark. The Panel finds that under
Policy ¶ 4(a)(i), removing the spaces from a mark
doesn’t render the domain name sufficiently different from the mark. See
Therefore, the Panel finds that the disputed
domain name is not sufficiently distinguished from, and is identical to,
Complainant’s THE GARY GROUP mark pursuant to Policy ¶ 4(a)(i).
Complainant has alleged that Respondent lacks
rights and legitimate interests in the disputed domain name. Based upon the allegations made in the
Complaint, the Panel believes that Complainant has established a prima facie case pursuant to Policy ¶
4(a)(ii), thus shifting the burden of proof to
Respondent. See AOL LLC v. Gerberg, FA 780200 (Nat. Arb. Forum Sept. 25, 2006)
(“Complainant must make a prima facie showing that Respondent does not have
rights or legitimate interest in the subject domain names, which burden is
light. If Complainant satisfies its
burden, then the burden shifts to Respondent to show that it does have rights
or legitimate interest in the subject domain names.”); see also Towmaster, Inc. v. Hale, FA 973506 (Nat. Arb. Forum June
4, 2007) (“Complainant must first make a prima facie case that Respondent lacks
rights and legitimate interests in the disputed domain name under Policy ¶
4(a)(ii), and then the burden shifts to Respondent to show it does have rights
or legitimate interests.”).
Complainant contends that Respondent is not
commonly known by the <thegarygroup.com>
domain name, nor has it ever been the owner or licensee of the THE GARY GROUP mark. The WHOIS record for the disputed domain name
identifies Respondent as “Gino Sesto.”
With no evidence showing that Respondent has been commonly known by any
variant of the THE GARY GROUP mark, the Panel finds that Respondent is not
commonly known by the disputed domain name pursuant to Policy ¶ 4(c)(ii). See Am. W. Airlines, Inc. v.
Paik, FA 206396 (Nat. Arb. Forum Dec. 22, 2003) (“Respondent has
registered the domain name under the name ‘Ilyoup Paik a/k/a David
Sanders.’ Given the WHOIS domain name
registration information, Respondent is not commonly known by the
[<awvacations.com>] domain name.”); see
also Braun Corp. v. Loney, FA 699652 (Nat. Arb. Forum July 7, 2006)
(concluding that the respondent was not commonly known by the disputed domain names
where the WHOIS information, as well as all other information in the record,
gave no indication that the respondent was commonly known by the disputed
domain names, and the complainant had not authorized the respondent to register
a domain name containing its registered mark).
Respondent is using the <thegarygroup.com> domain name to host a website that
redirects Internet users to a website resolving from the
<multiadvertising.us> domain name.
Internet users then are prompted to send an e-mail to gino@multiadvertising.us. Complainant contends that this redirection of
Internet users constitutes a diversion to a competitor of Complainant. In the Panel’s opinion this use by Respondent
of the <thegarygroup.com>
domain name is neither a bona fide
offering of goods or services under Policy ¶ 4(c)(i) nor a legitimate
noncommercial or fair use under Policy ¶ 4(c)(iii). See Am.
Online, Inc. v. Tencent Commc’ns Corp., FA 93668 (Nat. Arb. Forum Mar. 21,
2000) (finding that use of the complainant’s mark “as a portal to suck surfers
into a site sponsored by [the respondent] hardly seems legitimate”); see also Hale Prods., Inc. v. Hart Int’l
Inc., FA 198031 (Nat. Arb. Forum Dec. 2, 2003) (finding that Respondent
lacked rights and legitimate interests in the <jawsoflife.com> domain
name where it was being used to divert Internet users to the website for
Phoenix Rescue Tools, one of Complainant’s direct competitors).
Complainant contends that Respondent is using
the <thegarygroup.com> domain name, registered on March 20, 2009,
to confuse Internet customers and divert them from Complainant’s website to
Respondent’s website. Complainant also
contends that Respondent intends to compete with, and thereby disrupt,
Complainant’s business by this diversion.
The Panel finds that Respondent does disrupt Complainant’s business, and
therefore did register and is using the <thegarygroup.com> domain
name in bad faith pursuant to Policy ¶ 4(b)(iii). See Jerie v. Burian, FA 795430 (Nat. Arb. Forum
Oct. 30, 2006) (concluding that the respondent registered and used the
<sportlivescore.com> domain name in order to disrupt the complainant’s
business under the LIVESCORE mark because the respondent was maintaining a
website in direct competition with the complainant); see also Travant Solutions, Inc. v. Cole,
FA 203177 (Nat. Arb. Forum Dec. 6, 2003) (“Respondent registered and used the
domain name in bad faith, pursuant to Policy ¶ 4(b)(iii), because it is
operating on behalf of a competitor of Complainant . . .”).
Complainant also contends that Respondent
gains commercially from this diversion of Internet users, as Respondent is
redirecting Internet users to a website and an e-mail address that presumably
competes with Complainant’s business.
The Panel believes that Respondent is intentionally using the disputed
domain name for commercial gain through a likelihood of confusion with
Complainant’s mark, and so, pursuant to Policy ¶ 4(b)(iv),
this use is also evidence of Respondent’s registration and use in bad faith. See
Allianz of Am. Corp. v. Bond,
FA 680624 (Nat. Arb. Forum June 2, 2006) (finding bad faith
registration and use under Policy ¶ 4(b)(iv) where the respondent was diverting
Internet users searching for the complainant to its own website and likely
profiting); see also DatingDirect.com Ltd. v. Aston, FA 593977
(Nat. Arb. Forum Dec. 28, 2005) (“the Panel finds the respondent is
appropriating the complainant’s mark in a confusingly similar domain name for
commercial gain, which is evidence of bad faith registration and use pursuant
to Policy ¶4(b)(iv).”).
Complainant also contends that Respondent, as
a former employee of Complainant, intentionally registered and has used the
disputed domain name in a manner that disrupts Complainant’s business because
of Respondent’s animosity towards his former employer. The Panel may find that Respondent has
registered and used the disputed domain name in bad faith pursuant to Policy ¶
4(a)(iii), due to Respondent’s animus. See MBS Computers Ltd. v.
Workman, FA 96632 (Nat. Arb. Forum Mar. 16, 2001) (finding bad faith
use and registration where a disgruntled former employee registered an
infringing domain name to open an online business that competed with the
complainant); see also Savino Del Bene Inc. v. Gennari,
D2000-1133 (WIPO Dec. 12, 2000) ("Respondent's registration of the company
name of his former employer as a domain name is an act of bad faith.").
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 <thegarygroup.com> domain name be TRANSFERRED
from Respondent to Complainant.
Dated: November 11, 2009
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