Volkswagen recently won a domain name dispute through the Arbitration and Mediation Center at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
According to Trademarks & Brands Online, the domain volkswagen.mom had been registered by an individual, Zi Hao Liu, and due to its similarity, was infringing on the automobile company’s trademarks .
According to Volkswagen, the domain name in question must have been registered in bad faith since it did not link to any website.
In his decision, the panellist Yijun Tian, ruled in favour of Volkswagen, stating that the domain registered by Zi Hao Lin was identical to the trademarks owned by the car manufacturer and that this individual could not have registered the domain for a legitimate purpose since the domain itself was not in use.
Cybersquatting is becoming more and more frequent due to the ease in which generic top level domains can now be registered. Your company should constantly be looking out for potential cybersquatters. If you do come across someone using infringing your trademark with their domain name, you can file a complaint with the uniform domain-name dispute resolution (UDRP) run by ICANN.
In this increasingly digitalised world companies have to remain vigilant, like Volkswagen, in order to protect their brands from infringement. By owning a trademark for your goods you would be able to enforce your trademark rights both on and offline giving your brand a greater level of protection as well as increasing its value.
For advice and more information on searching, acquiring, registering and enforcing Trademarks please visit our website, http://www.lipex.com.
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