Capital One Financial Corp. v. Domain Administrator / Fundacion Private Whois
Claim Number: FA1403001549472
Complainant is Capital One Financial Corp. (“Complainant”), represented by John Gary Maynard, Virginia, USA. Respondent is Domain Administrator / Fundacion Private Whois (“Respondent”), Panama.
REGISTRAR AND DISPUTED DOMAIN NAME
The domain name at issue is <sharebuildere.com>, registered with Internet.bs Corp.
The undersigned certifies that he has acted independently and impartially, and, to the best of his knowledge, has no conflict of interests in serving as Panelist in this proceeding.
Terry F. Peppard as Panelist.
Complainant submitted a Complaint to the National Arbitration Forum electron-ically on March 19, 2014; the National Arbitration Forum received payment on March 19, 2014.
On March 19, 2014, Internet.bs Corp. confirmed by e-mail to the National Arbi-tration Forum that the <sharebuildere.com> domain name is registered with Internet.bs Corp. and that Respondent is the current registrant of the name. Internet.bs Corp. has verified that Respondent is bound by the Internet.bs Corp. registration agreement and has thereby agreed to resolve domain disputes brought by third parties in accordance with ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Policy”).
On March 20, 2014, the Forum served the Complaint and all Annexes, including a Written Notice of the Complaint, setting a deadline of April 9, 2014 by which Respondent could file a Response to the Complaint, via e-mail to all entities and persons listed on Respondent’s registration as technical, administrative, and bil-ling contacts, and to postmaster@sharebuildere.com. Also on March 20, 2014, the Written Notice of the Complaint, notifying Respondent of the e-mail addres-ses served and the deadline for a Response, was transmitted to Respondent via post and fax, to all entities and persons listed on Respondent’s registration as technical, administrative and billing contacts.
Having received no response from Respondent, the National Arbitration Forum transmitted to the parties a Notification of Respondent Default.
On April 16, 2014, pursuant to Complainant's request to have the dispute decid-ed by a single-member Panel, the National Arbitration Forum appointed Terry F. Peppard as sole Panelist in this proceeding.
Having reviewed the communications records, the Administrative Panel (the "Panel") finds that the National Arbitration Forum has discharged its responsibility under Paragraph 2(a) of the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the "Rules") "to employ reasonably available means calculated to achieve actual notice to Respondent" through submission of Electronic and Written Not-ices, as defined in Rule 1 and Rule 2. Therefore, the Panel may issue its decision based on the documents submitted and in accordance with the ICANN Policy, ICANN Rules, the National Arbitration Forum's Supplemental Rules and any rules and principles of law that the Panel deems applicable, without the benefit of any response from Respondent.
Complainant requests that the domain name be transferred from Respondent to Complainant.
A. Complainant
Complainant is a financial institution offering a broad spectrum of products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients.
Complainant uses the SHAREBUILDER mark to market its brokerage and other financial services.
Complainant holds registrations for the SHAREBUILDER mark, on file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) (including Registry No. 2,488,646, registered Sept. 11, 2001).
Respondent registered the <sharebuildere.com> domain name on or about August 2, 2005.
The <sharebuildere.com> domain name is confusingly similar to Complainant’s SHAREBUILDER mark.
Respondent has not been commonly known by the disputed domain name.
Complainant has not authorized Respondent to use its SHAREBUILDER mark in any way.
The <sharebuildere.com> domain name resolves to a website featuring links to the websites of Complainant’s commercial competitors.
Respondent employs the domain name to attract Internet users to its website for its commercial gain.
Respondent does not have any rights to or legitimate interests in the contested domain name.
Respondent’s use of the domain name disrupts Complainant’s business.
Respondent registered and uses the domain name in bad faith.
B. Respondent
Respondent failed to submit a Response in this proceeding.
(1) the domain name registered by Respondent is confusingly similar to a trademark in which Complainant has rights; and
(2) Respondent has no rights to or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and
(3) the same domain name was registered and is being used by Respondent in bad faith.
Paragraph 15(a) of 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 Complainant must prove each of the following three elements to obtain an order that a domain name should be can-celled or transferred:
i. the domain name registered by Respondent is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which Complainant has rights; and
ii. Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and
iii. the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.
In view of Respondent's failure to submit a response, the Panel shall decide this administrative proceeding on the basis of Complainant's undisputed representa-tions pursuant to paragraphs 5(e), 14(a) and 15(a) of the Rules and draw such inferences it considers appropriate pursuant to paragraph 14(b) of the Rules. The Panel is entitled to accept all reasonable allegations and inferences set forth in the Complaint as true unless the evidence is clearly contradictory. See Verti-cal Solutions Mgmt., Inc. v. webnet-marketing, inc., FA 95095 (Nat. Arb. Forum July 31, 2000) (holding that a respondent’s failure to respond allows all reason-able inferences of fact in the allegations of a UDRP complaint to be deemed true); see also Talk City, Inc. v. Robertson, D2000-0009 (WIPO Feb. 29, 2000): “In the absence of a response, it is appropriate to accept as true all allegations of the Complaint.”
Complainant has rights in the SHAREBUILDER trademark for purposes of Policy ¶ 4(a)(i) by reason of its registration of the mark with a national trademark auth-ority, the USPTO. See Reebok Int’l Ltd. v. Santos, FA 565685 (Nat. Arb. Forum Dec. 21, 2005) (finding that registration with the USPTO was adequate to estab-lish rights in a trademark under Policy ¶ 4(a)(i)).
This is true without regard to whether Complainant’s rights in its mark arise from registration of the mark in a jurisdiction (here the United States) other than that in which Respondent resides or operates (here Panama). See Koninklijke KPN N.V. v. Telepathy Inc., D2001-0217 (WIPO May 7, 2001) (finding that the Policy does not require that a mark be registered in the country in which a respondent operates, it being sufficient that a UDRP complainant can demonstrate rights in a mark in some jurisdiction).
Turning to the central question posed by Policy ¶ 4(a)(i), we conclude from a re-view of the record that Respondent’s <sharebuildere.com> domain name is con-fusingly similar to Complainant’s SHAREBUILDER trademark. The domain name incorporates the mark in its entirety, merely adding the letter “e” and the generic Top Level Domain (“gTLD”) “.com.” These alterations of the mark, made in forming the domain name, do not save the domain name from the realm of confusing similarity under the standards of the Policy.
In particular, the addition of a single character to the trademark of another in creating a domain name does not sufficiently differentiate the domain name from the mark. See EBAY, Inc. v. MEOdesigns, D2000-1368 (WIPO Dec. 15, 2000) (finding that a respondent’s <eebay.com> domain name was confusingly similar to a UDRP complainant’s EBAY mark).
Likewise, the addition of a gTLD to the mark of another in forming a domain name is irrelevant for purposes of a confusing similarity analysis. See Isleworth Land Co. v. Lost in Space, SA, FA 117330 (Nat. Arb. Forum Sept. 27, 2002):
[I]t is a well established principle that generic top-level domains are irrelevant when conducting a Policy ¶ 4(a)(i) analysis.
Under Policy ¶ 4(a)(ii), Complainant must make a prima facie showing that Re-spondent lacks rights to and legitimate interests in the disputed domain name, whereupon the burden shifts to Respondent to show that it does have such rights or interests. See Hanna-Barbera Prods., Inc. v. Entm’t Commentaries, FA 741828 (Nat. Arb. Forum Aug. 18, 2006) (holding that a complainant must make a prima facie case that a respondent lacks rights to and legitimate interests in a disputed domain name under UDRP ¶ 4(a)(ii) before the burden shifts to that re-spondent to show that it does have such rights or interests); see also AOL LLC v. Gerberg, FA 780200 (Nat. Arb. Forum Sept. 25, 2006):
Complainant must first make a prima facie showing that Respond-ent 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 interests in the subject domain names.
Complainant has made out a sufficient prima facie showing under this head of the Policy. Respondent’s failure to respond to the Complaint therefore permits us to infer that Respondent does not have rights to or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name. See Desotec N.V. v. Jacobi Carbons AB, D2000-1398 (WIPO Dec. 21, 2000) (finding that a respondent’s failure to respond to a UDRP complaint allows a presumption that a complainant’s allegations are true unless clearly contradicted by the evidence). Nonetheless, we will examine the record before us, in light of the several considerations set out in Policy ¶ 4(c), to deter-mine whether there is in it any basis for concluding that Respondent has rights to or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name which are cognizable under the Policy.
We begin by noting that Complainant asserts, and Respondent does not deny,
that Respondent has not been commonly known by the <sharebuildere.com> domain name, and that Complainant has not authorized Respondent to use its SHAREBUILDER mark in any way. Moreover, the WHOIS record for the domain name identifies the registrant only as “Domain Administrator” and “Fundacion Private Whois,” which, whether taken singly or together, does not resemble the domain name. On this record we conclude that Respondent has not been com-monly known by the disputed domain name so as to have acquired rights to or legitimate interests in it within the meaning of Policy ¶ 4(c)(ii). See Braun Corp. v. Loney, FA 699652 (Nat. Arb. Forum July 7, 2006) (finding that a respondent was not commonly known by disputed domain names, and so failed to show that it had rights to or legitimate interest in them as provided in Policy ¶ 4(c)(ii), where the relevant WHOIS information, as well as all other evidence in the record, gave no indication that that respondent was commonly known by the domain names, and where a UDRP complainant had not authorized that respondent to register a domain name containing its mark).
We next observe that Complainant asserts, without objection from Respondent, that the <sharebuildere.com> domain name resolves to a website featuring links to the websites of Complainant’s commercial competitors, and that Respondent seeks to profit from this use of the domain name. This employment of the do-main name is neither a bona fide offering of goods and services under Policy ¶ 4(c)(i) nor a legitimate noncommercial or fair use under Policy ¶ 4(c)(iii). See Expedia, Inc. v. Compaid, FA 520654 (Nat. Arb. Forum Aug. 30, 2005) (finding that a respondent’s use of the <expediate.com> domain name to redirect Internet users to a website featuring links to enterprises offering services that competed with the business of a UDRP complainant was 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)).
Therefore, the Panel finds that Complainant has satisfied the requirements of Policy ¶ 4(a)(ii).
We are persuaded by the evidence that Respondent’s use of the contested <sharebuildere.com> domain name, as alleged in the Complaint disrupts, Com-plainant’s business. This stands as proof of bad faith in the registration and use of the domain name under Policy ¶ 4(b)(iii). See Red Hat, Inc. v. Haecke, FA 726010 (Nat. Arb. Forum July 24, 2006) (finding, under Policy ¶ 4(b)(iii), that a respondent disrupted a UDRP complainant’s business, and thus engaged in bad faith registration and use of domain names, by using them to operate a commer-cial search engine with links to websites offering the products of that complain-ant’s competitors).
We are also convinced by the evidence that Respondent is attempting to obtain commercial gain by employing the <sharebuildere.com> domain name, which is confusingly similar to Complainant’s SHAREBUILDER mark, to attract Internet users to Respondent’s website by creating a likelihood of confusion as to the possibility of Complainant’s association with the domain name. This employment of the domain name demonstrates bad faith in its registration and use under Policy ¶ 4(b)(iv). See AltaVista Co. v. Krotov, D2000-1091 (WIPO Oct. 25, 2000) (finding bad faith under Policy ¶ 4(b)(iv) where a respondent’s domain name re-solved to a website featuring links to third-party websites that offered services similar to those of a UDRP complainant.
The Panel thus finds that Complainant has met its obligations of proof under Policy ¶ 4(a)(iii).
Complainant having established all three elements required to be proven under the ICANN Policy, the Panel concludes that the relief requested must be, and it is hereby, GRANTED.
Accordingly, it is Ordered that the <sharebuildere.com> domain name be forth-with TRANSFERRED from Respondent to Complainant.
Terry F. Peppard, Panelist
Dated: April 28, 2014
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