Oregon lotto wins UDRP jackpot

In Oregon State Lottery v Moore, National Arbitration Forum panellist Irving H Perluss has ordered the transfer of two domain names - 'Oregonlottery.com' and 'Oregonlottery.net' - to the Oregon Lottery and Oregon State. Perluss found that the registrant, Patrick Moore, a resident of Washington State, had registered and used the domain names to offer free email service addresses "solely because of their clear and obvious connection with the operations of the Oregon agency holding the trademark".

Applying the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), Perluss first found that the domain names were identical and confusingly similar to the Oregon State Lottery's common law trademark OREGON LOTTERY, which had been in use since 1985.

Next, Perluss rejected Moore's contention that he had registered the domain names prior to the Oregon State Lottery's registration of the mark with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Moore's application for the mark OREGONLOTTERY.COM was rejected in December 2002. Thus, Moore had no legitimate rights or interests in the domain names.

Finally, Perluss found that Moore had registered and used the domain names in bad faith because he knew at the time of registration that Oregon had exclusive rights in the names. He also stated that a disclaimer on Moore's websites was insufficient to prevent initial interest confusion and to avoid a finding of bad faith.

This decision falls in line with similar UDRP lottery cases brought by the states of Florida, Minnesota, Ohio, Texas and Washington in which the states prevailed.

For discussion of the Washington Case, see Washington State lotto hits jackpot in domain name case.

James L Bikoff and Patrick L Jones, Silverberg Goldman & Bikoff, Washington DC