DECISION

 

Indiana University Health, Inc. v. alan macmanus

Claim Number: FA2602002206627

 

PARTIES

Complainant is Indiana University Health, Inc. ("Complainant"), represented by John Lovi of Blackstone Law Group LLP, New York, USA. Respondent is alan macmanus ("Respondent"), Pakistan.

 

REGISTRAR AND DISPUTED DOMAIN NAME

The domain name at issue is <iuhealth-portal.com>, registered with Namecheap, Inc.

 

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.

 

Debrett G. Lyons as Panelist.

 

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Complainant submitted a Complaint to Forum electronically on February 21, 2026; Forum received payment on February 21, 2026.

 

On February 23, 2026, Namecheap, Inc. confirmed by e-mail to Forum that the <iuhealth-portal.com> domain name is registered with Namecheap, Inc. and that Respondent is the current registrant of the name. Namecheap, Inc. has verified that Respondent is bound by the Namecheap, Inc. 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 February 24, 2026, Forum served the Complaint and all Annexes, including a Written Notice of the Complaint, setting a deadline of March 16, 2026 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 billing contacts, and to postmaster@iuhealth-portal.com. Also on February 24, 2026, the Written Notice of the Complaint, notifying Respondent of the e-mail addresses 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 formal response from Respondent, Forum transmitted to the parties a Notification of Respondent Default.

 

On March 17, 2026, pursuant to Complainant's request to have the dispute decided by a single-member Panel, Forum appointed Debrett G. Lyons as Panelist.

 

Having reviewed the communications records, the Administrative Panel (the "Panel") finds that 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 Notices, 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, Forum's Supplemental Rules and any rules and principles of law that the Panel deems applicable, without the benefit of a formal response from Respondent.

 

RELIEF SOUGHT

Complainant requests that the domain name be transferred from Respondent to Complainant.

 

PARTIES' CONTENTIONS

A. Complainant

Complainant asserts trademark rights in IUHEALTH which it has used since 1977 in connection with healthcare services. Complainant states that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to its trademark.

 

Complainant states that the disputed domain name was created long after Complainant had acquired rights in the trademark. Complainant alleges that Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name because it is not known by the name and has not been authorized to use the trademark.

 

Complainant alleges that Respondent registered and used the disputed domain name in bad faith having targeted Complainant and its trademark. Complainant states that the domain name resolves to a fake website using its trademark and presenting as a portal to Complainant's services but likely used to phish for patient details, or other malicious activities.

 

B. Respondent

Respondent failed to submit a formal Response but on March 3, 2026, correspondence was received by Forum which stated:

 

"We made this site as an information blog, anyhow I now understand that I should not use the exact same name, therefore, I agree to transfer the domain iuhealth-portal.com."

 

PRELIMINARY ISSUE: CONSENT TO TRANSFER

The procedural question arises as to whether the message received by Forum on March 3, 2026, should be treated as a consent to transfer request. If so, a further question is whether the Panel should then directly transfer the domain name to Complainant without need to apply the Policy.

 

In the first place the Panel notes that the March 3, 2026, message was not authored by Respondent but by a Muhammad Waqas. That said, the email address given for Respondent is the same used to send that message. The Panel draws the reasonable inference that Muhammad Waqas is the underlying owner/controller of the disputed domain name and that the named Respondent, associated with an address in Pakistan, is a fictitious name. In the circumstances the Panel treats the message as having come from the domain name owner.

 

Transfer would be consistent with the request of the Complaint, but Complainant has not expressly foregone application of the Policy and UDRP decisions have long recognised so-called "consent to transfer" as one way in which respondents have tried to avoid the impact of the Policy and an adverse published decision. Here, there is no Response and the material accompanying the Complaint supports a case of bad faith that is not answered by the informal message from Respondent.

 

Those factors might ordinarily lead a panel away from an order for direct transfer.  Moreover, the Panel notes that neither of the trademark registrations on which Complainant relies for the purposes of paragraph 4(a)(i) of the Policy stands in the name of Complainant, nor does the registered owner share the same address as that given for Complainant. There is no explanation of the relationship, if any, between the registered owner and Complainant.

 

Regardless, in these circumstances, the Panel treats Respondent's request as a so-called "consent to transfer" and finds that direct transfer is to be preferred over application of the Policy.

 

DECISION

Accordingly, it is Ordered that the <iuhealth-portal.com> domain name be TRANSFERRED from Respondent to Complainant.

 

 

 

Debrett G. Lyons, Panelist

Dated: March 26, 2026