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German football champions FC Bayern Munich have closed down a website selling a range of counterfeit goods.
The case was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center in March.
The disputed website, teambayernmunichmall.com, offers for sale a range of football merchandise which bear the words “Bayern München”, according to the claim.
It added that the home page of the website “contains a logo of Bayern München" and a banner stating “FC Bayern München Team Shop”, leading to what claimed to be the official “Bayern München Football Club Online Store”.
The respondent, named as Giordano Matthew of Savoie, France, didn’t reply to the claim.
Bayern Munich is the owner of several trademarks for ‘FC Bayern’, including international registration numbers 1290740 and 797796 for goods in a number of classes, including class 25, for clothing, footwear and headgear.
Antony Gold was appointed sole panellist and found that the domain name was confusingly similar and that the respondent had no rights or legitimate interest in it.
“The addition of the prefix ‘team’ to ‘bayernmunich’ is likely to be perceived by internet users as an indication that the disputed domain name points to a website connected with the complainant’s football team.
“Deception is heightened through the respondent’s deceptive uses of misleading banners and straplines in the website.”
For bad faith, Gold stated that “the respondent has intentionally attempted to attract, for commercial gain, users to its website by creating a likelihood of confusion with the complainant’s mark as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of its website or of a product or service on it”.
FC Bayern, counterfeit, trademark, domain name
