Dyson Technology Limited v. xue lin
Claim Number: FA1804001780872
Complainant: Dyson Technology Limited of Malmesbury, Unknown, United Kingdom.
Respondent: xue lin of wu hao, International, CN
REGISTRIES and REGISTRARS
Registries: .CLUB DOMAINS, LLC
Registrars: GoDaddy.com, LLC
The undersigned certifies that he or she has acted independently and impartially and to the best of his or her knowledge has no known conflict in serving as Examiner in this proceeding.
Antonina Pakharenko-Anderson, as Examiner.
Complainant submitted: April 9, 2018
Commencement: April 10, 2018
Default Date: April 25, 2018
Having reviewed the communications records, the Examiner finds that the Forum has discharged its responsibility under URS Procedure Paragraphs 3 and 4 and Rule 4 of the Rules for the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (the "Rules") .
Complainant requests that the domain name be suspended for the life of the registration.
Clear and convincing evidence.
The Complainant is part of a group of companies which operates worldwide and is engaged in the design, development and sale of innovative appliances, such as vacuum cleaners, hand dryers, fans, heaters, humidifiers, purifiers, hair dryers and lighting products.
The annual turnover of the Complainant’s group is over £3.5 billion, with profits in excess of £800 million. It is a truly global business, and whilst the group’s headquarters are in the UK, the group as a whole trades in more than 70 countries, and more than 80% of its turnover is from non-UK markets.
The Complainant is the owner of extensive goodwill and reputation in the trade mark DYSON trade mark and is very well-known as a designer of innovative products. When used in relation to such products, DYSON denotes exclusively the business of the Complainant.
The Complainant is the registered proprietor of a number of trade marks for the word DYSON around the world, all of which pre-date the registration of the domain name. The Complainant is the owner of, at list, the following US trade marks: US trade marks numbers 3495150 and 4020756 for the word mark DYSON in classes 3, 7 and 37, and classes 7, 9, 11, 28 and 37 respectively. According to the provided materials, the Examiner has also found that, the first registered trademark DYSON in favour of Complainant appeared at list in 2008.
To the Complainant’s knowledge the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name, in particular:
(a) The Complainant has not licensed or otherwise permitted the Respondent to use any of its trade marks, or to register any domain name incorporating the DYSON trade marks.
(b) The Complainant has no legitimate reason to use the trade mark DYSON.
(c) The Respondent has not been commonly known by the domain name.
(d) The Respondent has acquired no trade mark or service mark rights in the trade mark DYSON.
Complainant contends that Respondent’s domain name, <dyson.club>, is confusingly similar to its marks, and was registered and is being used in bad faith by the Respondent who has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name.
Respondent is xue lin whose address is listed as hong shan qu li xin da sha 1805 wu hao, Hubei 430070 CN. Respondent registered the disputed domain name on March 17, 2018, therefore more than ten years after the registration of the Complainant’s trademark.
The domain name <dyson.club> has been registered without the Complainant previous consent or knowledge.
Respondent did not provide a response to the Complaint in accordance with the URS rules of procedure.
Even though the Respondent has defaulted, URS Procedure 1.2.6, requires Complainant to make a prima facie case, proven by clear and convincing evidence, for each of the following three elements to obtain an order that a domain name should be suspended.
IDENTICAL OR CONFUSINGLY SIMILAR
The only difference between the Domain Name, <dyson.club>, and the Complainant's DYSON mark is adding TLD .club. However, it is well accepted that the top level domain is irrelevant in assessing identity or confusing similarity, thus the “.club” is of no consequence here. The Examiner finds that the Domain Name is confusingly similar to Complainant’s DYSON mark.
NO RIGHTS OR LEGITIMATE INTERESTS
To the best of the Complainant’s knowledge, the Respondent does not have any rights in the name DYSON or “dyson” nor is the Respondent commonly known by either name. The Complainant has not licensed or otherwise permitted the Respondent to use any of its trade marks, or to register any domain name incorporating the DYSON trade marks.
The Respondent has adopted a domain name <dyson.club> which is identical to the Complainant’s DYSON trade mark registrations, which makes it inherently deceptive as to the source of the website.
The use of the DYSON trade mark in the Respondent’s domain name suggests that there is an authorised connection between the parties which does not, in fact, exist. The domain name is therefore inherently deceptive.
The Examiner, therefore, finds that the Respondent has established no rights or legitimate interests in the Domain Name.
BAD FAITH REGISTRATION AND USE
The Domain Name was registered on March 17, 2018, ten years after the Complainant's DYSON marks.
The Examiner finds that the Domain Name resolves to a website offering numerous Dyson products at prices below the production cost of the genuine products. It is to be inferred that the domain name was selected for the purpose of capturing internet users searching for goods sold by the Complainant’s group. The Respondent is using the domain name to mislead the Complainant’s customers in an effort to derive commercial gain.
The domain name <dyson.club> is therefore being used for offering goods and services identical to the ones protected by the Complainant’s Trademarks.
Furthermore, the Complainant submits that the Respondent is using the Domain Name in order to attract for commercial gain Internet users by creating a likelihood of confusion as to the source, sponsorship or affiliation of the website. The Examiner finds such behavior to further evidence Respondent’s bad faith registration and use.
After reviewing the Complainant’s submissions, the Examiner determines that the Complainant has demonstrated all three elements of the URS by a standard of clear and convincing evidence; the Examiner hereby Orders the following domain names be SUSPENDED for the duration of the registration.
<dyson.club>
Antonina Pakharenko-Anderson, Examiner
Dated: April 25, 2018
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