False contact information contributes to cybersquatter's demise

In Intellution Inc v Intellution - You should have bought it when you had the chance, World Intellectual Property Organization panellist Gordon Arnold has ordered the transfer of 'intellution.net' to the complainant. Arnold held that the fact that the registrant had provided false contact information to the registrar was prima facie evidence of bad-faith registration.

The complainant, Intellution, is owned by General Electric and has rights in the trademark INTELLUTION. It brought a trademark infringement action under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) against the registrant of 'intellution.net'.

Arnold ordered the transfer of the disputed domain name finding that:

• Intellution has rights in the mark INTELLUTION;
  
  
• 'intellution.net' is identical to Intellution's mark;
  
  
• the registrant had no legitimate interest in the domain name; and
  
  
• 'intellution.net' had been both registered and used in bad faith.

Arnold was satisfied that the disputed domain name had been registered in bad faith on the basis that the registrant's contact information provided to the registrar was fictitious. He also held that the registrant's use of the domain name to divert internet users to the website of Intellution's primary competitor satisfied the UDRP bad-faith test in Paragraph 4(b)(iii).

Gordon J Zimmerman, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Toronto