Real Madrid score in WIPO domain case

Spanish football team Real Madrid have secured the transfer of a domain name featuring information about the team.

A Brazilian-based individual had registered realmadrid.com.br in 2014. They did not respond to the subsequent complaint.  

When Real Madrid filed a complaint in November last year at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Arbitration and Mediation Center, the disputed domain name was used to host a website with information about the Real Madrid club, including information on players and news, and advertising space.

Founded in 1902, Real Madrid own trademark registrations across the world, including Brazilian trademark number 320,325,503 for the brand ‘MCF Real Madrid’.

Eduardo Machado, a specialist at the Center, found that the disputed domain was sufficiently similar to Real Madrid’s marks.

“It is also noted that the disputed domain name incorporates the ‘Real Madrid’ brand, adding only the country-code top-level domain .com.br, which, as we all know, is not able to rule out the similarity between the complainant’s trademark and the disputed domain name,” said Machado.

WIPO found that there was no indication that the Brazilian respondent had a legitimate name, brand, product and/or services associated with the disputed domain name, so they didn’t have any rights or legitimate interests in the domain.

On bad faith, the specialist said that the “mere use” of the ‘Real Madrid’ trademark in the domain may be suggestive of bad faith, especially where the mark is recognised worldwide.

“The respondent’s bad faith is confirmed by noting that on the homepage of the website under the disputed domain name the respondent makes use of the complainant’s logo,” said Machado.

The decision was made on January 24 and published on Friday, February 9.