FACTS ASSERTED BY THE COMPLAINANT AND NOT CONTESTED BY THE RESPONDENT:
This Complaint is submitted by TLT LLP, a firm of solicitors regulated in the United Kingdom by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, on behalf of BGL Group Limited. The Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) is requested to submit this Complaint for decision in accordance with the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy and CAC’s UDRP Supplemental rules of the Czech Arbitration Court.
The Complainant, BGL Group Limited (BGL) is a company incorporated in England and Wales with company number 02593690. It was incorporated on 21 March 1991.
BGL originally operated as an insurance underwriter. Since 1997, BGL has operated as an intermediary for UK personal-lines insurance.
In 2005, BGL created its “Compare the Market” (CtM) brand as part of its business as a personal-lines insurance intermediary. As part of the CtM brand, BGL created the website www.comparethemarket.com. This was, and is, a price-comparison website for personal-lines insurance products.
The domain comparethemarket.com and the domain comparethemarket.co.uk were both registered on 21 September 2004. They are registered to BISL Ltd, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of BFSL Ltd. BFSL Ltd is in turn a wholly-owned subsidiary of BGL. In effect BGL owns the domains comparethemarket.com and comparethemarket.co.uk.
In January 2009, the CtM brand was re-launched. The re-launch included television adverts featuring Aleksandr the Meerkat, an anthropomorphized meerkat character. A companion website was also created at www.comparethemeerkat.com.
The domain comparethemeerkat.com was registered on 3 October 2007. It is registered to BGL.
The CtM brand is very well-known in the UK, particularly by reference to the Aleksandr the Meerkat character. For example:
VCCP, the advertising agency which created the Aleksandr character for BGL, has won awards for its work: see for example http://www.vccp.com/
BGL won the Marketing Week Engage 2010 Brand of the Year award for their CtM brand: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/
VCCP maintain a webpage on their work for BGL here:
http://www.vccp.com/
BGL owns the following trademarks (together, the Trademarks), all registered in classes 35 and 36 (which covers motor vehicle insurance):
UK Trademark 2521908 for "meerkat";
UK Trademark 2521895 for "comparethemeerkat";
UK Trademark 2504071 for "comparethemeerkat.com";
UK Trademark 2456693B;
UK Trademark 2522721 for "comparethemarket";
UK Trademark 2486675 for "comparethemarket.com".
BGL also owns the goodwill in the CtM brand, and in associated marketing such as the character of Aleksandr the Meerkat.
Why is the domain name an Abusive Registration?
The Respondent is the registrant of the domain "meerkatcarinsurance.com" (the Domain). The Domain was registered on 19 February 2012, more than 5 years after BGL registered comparethemeerkat.com. The Respondent lives in the UK and at the time the Domain was registered, BGL's Aleksandr the Meerkat was well recognised as part of BGL's CtM brand.
BGL considers this to be a case of 'cybersquatting' which seeks and at the time sought to take unfair advantage of BGL's CtM brand.
The Domain is comprised of three words ("meerkat", "car" and "insurance"). As mentioned above, BGL owns UK trademark 2521908 for "meerkat". It is registered in classes 35 and 36 which cover insurance services. One of the main services BGL provides on its site is car insurance. Therefore by using BGL's trademark 2521908 for a service the trademark is registered for and listing a product BGL on its site, the Registrant is taking unfair advantage of BGL's reputation and is causing confusion.
The Domain takes the user to a site that advertises Quote Zone. If the user clicks on a link at the site, it takes the user to QuoteZone.co.uk. Quote Zone is a direct competitor of BGL.
The Domain causes confusion as users trying to access BGL's site only need to mistakenly type BGL's trademark "meerkat" along with a descriptive term, describing a service BGL provides "car insurance" and they end up at a competitor's site. This means that BGL potentially loses the opportunity to interact with those users.
The purpose and effect of the Domain is to take advantage of errors made by people seeking BGL's site, and thereafter to direct them to BGL's competitor's website.
An average internet user would understand the Domain to be deliberately taking unfair advantage of the errors of people seeking BGL's website.
A screenshot of the Website at the Domain is provided. The Domain was registered in bad faith because the Registrant seeks only to take unfair advantage of BGL’s CtM brand. The sole motivation is to benefit from errors made by people seeking BGL’s website.
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