Jakri ApS of Vildbjerg, Denmark just lost a UDRP decision on the domain name indura.com which was owned by Sanela Jankovic of Copenhagen who represented himself in the proceeding.
The domain was acquired through a NameJet.com auction in just February of this year.
Here are the relevant facts and findings by the three member panel”
The Complainant is part of the Indura group of companies, which was founded on August 24, 1988.
On December 22, 1997 Indura A/S was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Complainant.
The Complainant holds the intellectual property rights of the Indura group and applied for two Community trademarks on January 7, 2013, i.e. INDURA (application no. 011338118) and INDURA & design (application no. 011338191).
At the time of the filing of the Complaint, the disputed domain name was registered in the name of the Respondent Sanela Jankovic, who is still registered as domain owner in the WhoIs database.
The Respondent Jesper Wennick acquired the disputed domain name on February 26, 2013 in a public Internet auction at the auction site <namejet.com>.
“The first point to be dealt with is the identity of the Respondent. The disputed domain name is still registered in the name of the Respondent Sanela Jankovic. However, the Respondent Jesper Wennick provided evidence that he acquired the disputed domain name prior to the filing of the Complaint in the present proceeding and that the transfer of the disputed domain name failed because the Complaint had been lodged in the meantime. As the information in the WhoIs database is not constitutive of the ownership of the disputed domain name, the Panel will treat Jesper Wennick as beneficial holder of the disputed domain name and will refer to Jesper Wennick as the Respondent for the purpose of this proceeding.”
The Complainant does not own any registered trademark rights in INDURA but has so far only applied for the registration of two Community trademarks including such term.
The Complainant relies on unregistered trademark rights in Denmark in INDURA based the use of such term since its establishment in August 1988 in the course of trade with fittings, flanges, and other related products.
To establish common law trademark rights under the Policy, a complainant must show that the name has become a distinctive identifier associated with the complainant or its goods or services.
Relevant evidence of such “secondary meaning” includes length and amount of sales under the trademark, the nature and extent of advertising, consumer surveys and media recognition.…
