Domain Spats & Disputes

The National Arbitration Forum ordered that 41 domains resembling weatherunderground.com and wunderground.com be transferred to The Weather Underground, Inc. The domains in dispute included watherunderground.com, weaherunderground.com, weahterunderground.com, weartherunderground.com, weatehrunderground.com, wunnderground.com, wundergtound.com, wundergroundr.com, wundertground.com, wunederground.com, qwunderground.com, swunderground.com, winderground.com, wumderground.com, wundeerground.com, wunderfround.com, udergroundweather.com, undegroundweather.com, undergoundweather.com, undergroudweather.com, undergroundwaether.com, and other similar domains.

The Respondent in the case was Navigation Catalyst Systems, Inc., which has a history of registering domains containing registered trademarks and brand names. NCS initially filed a response claiming that it was “not aware of complainant’s trademarks,” but this defense didn’t have legs.

The NAF panel found that all 3 elements of cybersquatting were present: The domain names were “confusingly similar” to the complainant’s trademark; the respondent did not have any “rights or legitimate interests” in the domains; and the respondent registered and used the domains “in bad faith.”

The Weather Underground, Inc., registered the trademarks back in 1999 and 2000, and NCS registered its look-alike domains between 2004 and 2008.

Read more at TraverseLegal.

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