PARTIES' CONTENTIONS:
COMPLAINANT:
The Complainant asserts that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to its registered trade mark: it incorporates its registered trade mark GLENCORE in its entirety and combines it with a generic term “jobs”, which is closely related to the Complainant’s business activities.
The Complainant asserts that the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interest in the disputed domain name. The Complainant states that it has never granted the Respondent any right to use the GLENCORE trade mark in the disputed domain name, nor is the Respondent affiliated to the Complainant in any form. The Complainant asserts that the Respondent is not commonly known by the disputed domain name nor has interest in it. When entering the terms “glencore” and “jobs” in the Google search engine, the returned results all point to the Complainant and its business activities. The Complainant says that the Respondent could have easily performed a similar search before registering the disputed domain name and would have quickly learnt that the GLENCORE trade marks are owned by the Complainant and that the Complainant has been using its trade marks in many countries around the world, including in Australia where the Respondent resides.
The Complainant asserts that when it prepared the Complaint on 3 February 2020, the disputed domain name did not resolve to any active website but only displayed message: “This domain is hosted by Absolute-Email.net”. The Respondent has not been using the disputed domain name to offer goods or services on the website and there is no evidence to show that the Respondent is using the disputed domain name in connection with a bona fide offering of goods or services, nor making a legitimate, non-commercial or fair use of the disputed domain name.
The Complainant also asserts that the disputed domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith. It submits that its trade marks predate the registration of the disputed domain name and that the Respondent has never been authorised by the Complainant to use these trade marks nor register the disputed domain name. In addition, the Complainant has an active presence under the trade mark GLENCORE in Australia where the Respondent resides and the Respondent very likely knew about the Complainant’s rights when it chose to incorporate the registered trade mark GLENCORE in the disputed domain name in its entirely and combine it with a generic term “jobs” which is closely related to the Complainant’s business activities.
The Complainant says that it tried to contact the Respondent on 10 September 2019 through a cease-and-desist letter. As the Respondent was using privacy shield service, the letter was sent via the registrant email <glencorejobs.com@softlayerdomainsprivacy.com> as shown in the WHOIS. It also contacted the Registrar SoftLayer via <abuse@softlayer.com> and sent reminders on 20 September 2019 and 27 September 2019. The Complainant also sent the cease-and-desist letter to the “Registration Service Provider”, Medusa Red Limited, by email to <domains@medusared.com> on 26 November 2019 and a reminder on 6 December 2019, requesting Medusa Red Limited to forward the communication to the Respondent.
The Complainant says that on 9 December 2019 the Respondent replied stating: “I have asked absolute email to delete the domain registration and that will happen within the next 10 working days and I will update you along with a copy of the confirmation email once it happens”. The Complainant says it requested a transfer instead of cancellation. The Respondent replied that the request was unclear and it was inconvenient to conduct a transfer and requested this be postponed until 16 December 2019. On 20 December 2019 the Complainant sent a reminder. On 8 January 2020 the Respondent replied that it was “busy” due to the holidays and said that it was requesting the “password”. On 14 January 2020 the Complainant sent a reminder to the Respondent but received no response.
The Complainant asserts that the Respondent promised to cooperate but did not keep its word and says that if the Respondent was in of good faith, it should have complied with the deadlines, responded actively to the Complainant and kept the Complainant informed of any progress.
RESPONDENT:
The Respondent’s response is brief and consists mainly of standard wording.
Under the heading “Respondent’s Rights” it states: “Person related to owner or licensee (e.g. a subsidiary or manager of an owner)”. Under the heading “Legal Grounds” it states: “The domain name(s) has not been registered and used in bad faith. Categories of issues involved:
a. Meaning of registration
i. Transfer to connected person
b. Registration of a domain name prior to trade mark right”.
The Respondent's then states: “I don't know what to fill here and how to fill. I am so confused. What I can do is, I can provide the code to unlock domain and kindly forgive my mistake. Sorry. Please help me to solve this. I am begging”.
|