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Luxury fashion house Gucci has recovered five domain names at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center.
Gucci filed its complaint on January 9 against respondent Andrea Lamb. The respondent did not answer Gucci’s complaint.
The disputed domains included gucci-italias.com, guccis-deutschland.com, guccissitoufficiale.com, gucci-wiens.com and sac-guccifr.com.
The domains were registered in September last year.
In its complaint, Gucci argued that the respondent’s domains were confusingly similar to its ‘Gucci’ trademark, that Lamb did not offer bona fide goods, and that she sold counterfeit Gucci products on the site.
Gucci has owned trademarks for the term ‘Gucci’ since 1977.
Sole panellist in the dispute, Mathias Lilleengen, handed Gucci the domains on March 6 this year.
The decision was published yesterday, March 9.
Lilleengen found that the domains were confusingly similar to Gucci’s marks and that the respondent did not use the domain in connection with bona fide goods.
After Gucci argued a prima facie case, Lilleengen ruled that the respondent had no rights or legitimate interests in the domains.
On the ruling of bad faith, the panellist said that the domains resolve to web pages that “seem to sell counterfeited Gucci products”.
He added that the respondent registered the domains for “commercial gain” and with the intention of confusing internet users into believing that the domain names are associated with Gucci.
The domains were found to have been used in bad faith.
The ruling is available in full here.
Gucci, World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center, trademark, fashion, cybersquatter, Mathias Lilleengen, Andrea Lamb,
