NATIONAL ARBITRATION FORUM
DECISION
Pelle Pelle, Inc. v.
Requiem c/o Daniel Green
Claim Number: FA0909001284567
PARTIES
Complainant is Pelle Pelle, Inc.
("Complainant"), represented by Jeffrey P. Thennisch, of Dobrusin
& Thennisch, PC,
REGISTRAR AND DISPUTED DOMAIN NAME
The domain
name at issue is <requiemapparel.com>, registered with Namezero.
PANEL
The undersigned certifies that he
has acted independently and impartially and to the best of his knowledge has no
known conflict in serving as Panelist in this proceeding.
David A. Einhorn appointed as Panelist.
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, Namezero confirmed by e-mail to the National Arbitration
Forum that the <requiemapparel.com> domain name is registered with
Namezero and that the Respondent is the current registrant of the name.
Namezero has verified that Respondent is bound by the Namezero 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 22, 2009, a Notification of Complaint and Commencement of
Administrative Proceeding (the "Commencement Notification"), setting
a deadline of October 13, 2009 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@requiemapparel.com by
e-mail.
A timely Response was received and determined to be
complete on October 1, 2009.
On October 7, 2009, pursuant to
Complainant's request to have the dispute decided by a single-member Panel, the
National Arbitration Forum appointed David A. Einhorn as Panelist.
RELIEF SOUGHT
Complainant requests that the domain name be
transferred from Respondent to Complainant.
PARTIES' CONTENTIONS
A. Complainant
Complainant alleges as follows:
(1)
Complainant owns a trademark registration for REQUIEM for use on
clothing apparel. Complainant argues that
Respondent's domain <requiemapparel.com> is confusingly similar to
its mark.
(2) Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests with
respect to the domain name.
(3) The domain name was registered and is
being used in bad faith.
B. Respondent
Respondent
argues that the domain name was not registered in bad faith, since it was
unaware of Complainant's REQUIEM mark until receipt of Complainant's letter
dated August 26, 2009, and it registered the domain name before that time.
Nevertheless, Respondent states that it has decided to
relinquish all rights to the use of the domain name <requiemapparel.com>
to Complainant.
FINDINGS
Respondent
has stipulated that the domain name may be transferred to 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."
In this
case, the parties have both asked that the domain name be transferred to the
Complainant. Since the requests of the parties are identical, the Panel has the
discretion to recognize this common request without making findings of fact
regarding compliance with the Policy.
In light of the foregoing, the Panel
decides that there is no necessity for it to resolve the contested issue of
whether Respondent's domain name has been registered in bad faith, since the
Respondent in its response agreed to the transfer of the domain name at issue. See, similarly, Slumberland France v. Chadia
Acohuri, D2000-0195 (WIPO
June 10, 2000).
DECISION
As Respondent has chosen not to contest the remedy
sought by Complainant, the Panel concludes that relief shall be GRANTED.
Accordingly,
it is Ordered that the <requiemapparel.com> domain name be TRANSFERRED
from Respondent to Complainant.
David A. Einhorn,
Panelist
Dated: October 23, 2009
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