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The Swatch Group has recovered two domain names used as part of an email phishing scam sent to its employees.
The Swiss-based luxury watch brand had filed the case with the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center in February.
According to the claim, each of the domain names was used as part of a phishing scam where an email claimed to originate from a senior employee of the Swatch Group and sought urgent payment of money.
The Swatch Group is the owner of numerous registered trademarks around the world that comprise the term ‘Swatch’.
Matthew Harris was appointed as sole panellist and found that each of the domains, sawtchgroup.com and zwatchgroup.com,can only be understood as a misspelling of The Swatch Group’s registered trademarks.
The panel considered the issues of rights or legitimate interests and bad faith together, and found that the South African-based respondent, who didn’t reply to the complaint, had registered the domains with the intention of running a fraudulent scheme.
The panel ordered the domain names to be transferred to the Swatch Group.
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Swatch Group, phishing, WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre, WIPO, trademark, domain names,
