Canada Goose tries to take back .com domain

Winter-wear clothing company Canada Goose has attempted to take back a domain name that it claims is misleading consumers. 

Filed at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division on Wednesday, August 9, the claim alleged that canadiangoose.com was confusing consumers that were searching for Canada Goose’s products. 

“Registrant has no legitimate business purpose in using the confusingly similar name,” said the claim, adding that the domain was registered to exploit the brand’s goodwill.

Canada Goose claimed that it had approached the registrant anonymously and the registrant said it was seeking more than $100,000 for the domain.

Since 1999, Canada Goose has promoted and sold its products through the website canadagoose.com, which has around 2.4 million unique visitors per month. 

The brand owns 200 other domain names that incorporate the ‘Canada Goose’ trademark, including canadagoose.org, canadagoose.ca, canadagoose.eu, and canadagoose.cn. 

It owns numerous trademarks, including US registration number 4,455,111 for the mark ‘Canada Goose’ in class 25, which covers outerwear. 

“Canada Goose aggressively protects and polices the valuable ‘Canada Goose’ trademarks and has campaigned globally against counterfeits for over a decade, making significant investments in the fight against counterfeit goods to educate and protect consumers,” said the brand. 

On its website, consumers can enter the URL of any site they believe to be selling counterfeit merchandise in order to immediately verify whether it is an authorised retailer. 

The suit added: “On May 29, 2002, at the precise moment in Canada Goose’s history when it began to expand and aggressively promote its products and brand, … registrant registered the infringing domain name.”

In November last year, the website displayed links to “Canada Goose Jacket” and “Canada Goose Online”, said the brand. 

Canada Goose is seeking injunctive relief, disabling of the domain, an order that the registrar reveal the details of the registrant, profits, and a jury trial.