US band The Lumineers have recovered a domain name offering tickets for their 2017 tour.
The domain, thelumineerstour2017.com, was transferred to the band on January 25 by the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Arbitration and Media Center.
The decision, made by sole panellist Ian Lowe, was announced yesterday, February 6.
In December last year, The Lumineers filed a complaint against Andrey Weprikov of Kiev, Ukraine, who then failed to respond.
The Lumineers own a number of trademarks around the world for ‘The Lumineers’, including US registration number 4406893 and international registration number 1160926.
According to the decision, the domain was registered in September 2016 and resolves to a website providing biographical information about the band members and displaying the cover image from their most recent album.
The website also includes a list of The Lumineers’ planned live performances in 2017 and offers tickets for those performances.
Lowe said that the band have “uncontested rights” in the mark by virtue of the various trademark registrations and the goodwill and reputation acquired through use.
He added that the domain was confusingly similar to the mark, particularly because of the use of the domain and the fact that The Lumineers will be touring.
“The complainant has made out a strong prima facie case that the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name,” said Lowe, adding that it is not clear whether the tickets for sale are genuine.
Because of this, Lowe found that Weprikov had no rights or legitimate interests in the domain.
Finally, Lowe decided that the domain was being used in bad faith as he considered that visitors to the site “are very likely to believe that they have reached an official website operated or controlled by the complainant”.
The Lumineers, music, domain names, World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Media Center, WIPO, trademark,
