‘Drop-catching’ defence tested in South African domain name complaint

The practice of drop catching in the South African domain name space (‘.co.za’) was considered for the first time in a dispute concerning the domain name ‘darling.co.za’. The adjudicator ruled that the domain name registration abused the complainant’s rights. Where the domain name in dispute is identical to the complaint’s trademark, the onus is on the registrant to prove that the domain name is not abusive.