Business cannot claim acronym as domain name

A Danish Internet Forum (DIFO) panel has rejected a claim by a real estate investment company, De Københavnske Ejendomsselskaber, for the transfer of the domain name 'dke.dk'. Although the letters DKE form an acronym of the company's name, the company never used this as a trademark and thus had no special right to the domain name.

De Københavnske Ejendomsselskaber brought a claim alleging that the owner of the 'dke.dk' domain name had no intention of using the domain name for its business, and had only registered the name in order to resell it. It also alleged that the owner had no special right to the domain name.

The DIFO panel found that the company had not proved its right to either the DKE trademark or domain name. The placing together of the initial letters of the words of a company name is not enough to prove a right over a domain name owned by another person or entity. Although the company does sometimes shorten its name to DKE, it does not use this abbreviation as a trademark. If it had, the panel may have held that the company had a right over the domain name. The panel emphasized that claimants must prove a special right to a domain name in such cases.

Jeppe Brogaard Clausen and Nicholas Wantzin, Magnusson Wahlin Qvist Stanbrook, Copenhagen