According to the information provided Complainant is a French multinational mass media conglomerate headquartered in Paris. The company has activities in music, television, film, video games, telecommunications, tickets and video hosting service.
The disputed domain name <vivendi-x.com> was registered on 1 January 2020.
The disputed domain name is used in connection with a pay-per-click website with automatically generated listings.
The trademark registrations of Complainant have been issued prior to the registration of the disputed domain name.
According to Complainant the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to its trademark VIVENDI. The trademark is included in its entirety. The addition of the dash “-” and the letter “x” in the disputed domain name is not sufficient to escape the finding that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to the trademark.
According to Complainant, Respondent has no rights or legitimate interest in the disputed domain name. Complainant submits that Respondent is not affiliated with nor authorized by Complainant in any way. Complainant does not carry out any activity for, nor has any business with Respondent. Neither license nor authorization has been granted to Respondent to make any use of Complainant’s trademarks, or apply for registration of the disputed domain name. Furthermore, the disputed domain name points to a parking page with commercial links in relation with Complainant and its competitors.
According to Complainant the disputed domain name is registered in bad faith. Given the distinctiveness of Complainant's trademarks and its reputation, it is reasonable to infer that Respondent has registered the disputed domain name with full knowledge of Complainant's trademarks. Complainant contends that Respondent attempts to disrupt Complainant’s business and attract, for commercial gain, users to the resolving website which features click-through advertisements that redirect users to Complainant’s competitors. Using a confusingly similar domain name to disrupt a complainant’s business and commercially benefit via competing pay-per-click links can evidence bad faith registration and use.
|