The Complainant registered the word mark "PEUPLADE" in 2004 and a logo consisting primarily of the letter "p" and the string "Peuplade.fr" in 2015, in each case in France in classes 38, 42 and 45. A social network called "PEUPLADE" has been promoted in some French media.
The Complainant registered a serie of domain names containing "peuplade" as the second level domain: <peuplade.be>, <peuplade.com> (the disputed domain name), <peuplade.es>, <peuplade.fr>, <peuplade.it>, <peuplade.net>, <peuplade.org>, <peuplade.uk>, <peuplade.xyz>.
The Complainant allowed several of these domain names to lapse. The domain name <peuplade.fr> was then registered by a third party, but was transferred to the Complainant in accordance with a decision of the French body AFNIC of 27 June 2018.
The disputed domain name was registered by the Respondent on 14 August 2017 and directed to a website where it was offered for sale. In response to an inquiry from the Complainant the Respondent offered to sell it for $4500.
"Peuplade" is a fairly infrequently used French word meaning "people", "ethnic group" or "tribe".
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