Tencent Holdings Limited just lost its attempt to grab the domain name tencentgames.com in a UDRP and the domain holder didn’t even respond.
Bottom line the panel found the complainant trademark was effective in 2010 and the domain name registered in 2009:
Here are the relevant facts and findings by a one member panel:
“The Complainant is a Chinese investment holding company whose subsidiaries provide mass media, entertainment, Internet and mobile phone value-added services and operate online advertising services in the People’s Republic of China. Its diverse services include social networks, web portals, e-commerce, and multiplayer online games. The Complainant operates the well-known instant messenger Tencent QQ and runs one of the largest web portals in China, QQ.com. As of November 2010 the company is the third largest Internet company in the world behind Google and Amazon with market capitalization of US $38 billion.
“The Complainant owns trademark registrations for the mark TENCENT in Hong Kong and Taiwan, including:
- Hong Kong Trademark Registration No. 301038889 registered since January 24, 2008 for among others providing online game and online computer games and contests, and
- Taiwan Trademark Registration No. 00188316 registered since October 16, 2003 for communication services.
“The Respondent registered the disputed domain name on June 9, 2009 and at the time of submission of the Complaint the website under the disputed domain name featured an online game site, including flash games and shockwave games, as well as advertisement options for those interested.”
“In support of its allegation that the Respondent had knowledge of its mark at the time of registering the disputed domain name the Complainant submitted that the TENCENT mark is extremely well known in China and worldwide, as well as that it contains the dominant and distinctive element of the Complainant’s G TENCENT GAMES teng xun you xi mark. ”
“The Panel finds that this statement of the Complainant on its mark(s) worldwide well known status is not supported by evidence.”
“Further, the G TENCENT GAMES teng xun you xi marks to which the Complainant referred were all applied for on August 4, 2010, while the Respondent registered the disputed domain name earlier, on June 9, 2009 respectively.”
In support of its allegation that the Respondent had knowledge of its mark at the time of registering the disputed domain name the Complainant submitted that the TENCENT mark is extremely well known in China and worldwide, as well as that it contains the dominant and distinctive element of the Complainant’s G TENCENT GAMES teng xun you xi mark.…
