Domain Name: magicbra.com
Case: A & H Sportswear Co., Inc. v. Hu Yanlin, Case No. D2010-0476 (WIPO May 12, 2010).
Element(s) not met: 4(a)(ii)
Complainant is a sportswear company that owns two U.S. trademark registrations for MAGIC BRA, which it filed for in 1994. Respondent registered the Domain Name in 2001, and plans to develop a site there about various forms of breast augmentation.
Though the Panel found that the Domain Name is confusingly similar to Complainant’s mark, it found that Complainant failed to make a prima facie showing that the Respondent lacked rights or legitimate interests in the Domain Name.
The Panel found that there was no evidence to support Complainant’s assertions that it owns exclusive rights in relation to the mark and that people would associate the mark with products produced by the Complainant. Moreover, there was no evidence that Complainant owned registered trademark rights in China, which is the market in which Respondent lives and which he planned to do business with the domain name.
Further, there was no evidence that Respondent intended to compete with Complainant in the U.S. marketplace, and the fact that the current site was written in Chinese supported that point.
Photo courtesy Flickr user AZAdam under this Creative Commons license.
