eBay and Google find favour with Danish domain board

The Complaints Board for Domain Names for the '.dk' domain has ruled in favour of two internet giants, eBay and Google.

The domain name 'eBay.dk' was registered by a firm called ITemize ApS in November 1998. The website was supposed to be the future home of Enhanced Business Apprehensible Yielding. ITemize argued that it had a legitimate commercial interest in registering and using the domain name.

The complainant, eBay, is a leading online marketplace for the sale of goods and services. It has used the company name 'eBay' since it was founded, and the EBAY trademark has been registered in the United States and Europe since May 1998. The domain name 'ebay.com' has also been registered since August 1995.

eBay argued that ITemize:

• was unable to prove a relevant connection to the name 'ebay' since it was not (i) registered under the name Enhanced Business Apprehensible Yielding, or (ii) able to say which services were to be distributed on the site;
  
  
• had been aware of eBay's rights, and thus had registered the domain name in bad faith; and
  
  
• had offered to sell the domain name to eBay at a price that was far above the cost of registering the name.

The board ruled in favour of eBay, finding that the respondent had registered the domain name in bad faith, to profit from the complainant's trademark.

Meanwhile, the board also ruled in favour of Google regarding the domain names 'guugle.dk' and 'gogle.dk'. The board based its decision in part on the fact that the registrant used the sites to offer services similar to those offered by Google.

Kristina Andersen, Moltke-Leth Advokater, Copenhagen