FACTS ASSERTED BY THE COMPLAINANT AND NOT CONTESTED BY THE RESPONDENT:
Tthe Complainant submits that it is among the leaders in professional and university legal publishing in France.
The Complainant says that it owns several trademarks including the term “DALLOZ” in several countries as noted above.
In addition the Complainant’s parent company LEFEBVRE SARRUT applied for European trademark LEFEBVRE DALLOZ on 16 October 2020. Furthermore, the Complainant owns several domain names comprising the wording “DALLOZ”, such as <dalloz.fr> registered and used since 1 August 1996.
The disputed domain name <lefebvredalloz.com> was registered on 16 October 2020 and resolves to a SEDO page where the domain name is offered for sale for 988 USD.
The Complainant states that the disputed domain name <lefebvredalloz.com> is confusingly similar to its trademark DALLOZ®. The addition of the terms “LEFEBVRE” is not sufficient to escape the finding that the domain name is confusingly similar to the trademark DALLOZ®. It says that this does not change the overall impression of the designation as being connected to the Complainant’s trademark DALLOZ®. Nor does it prevent the likelihood of confusion between the disputed domain name and the Complainant and its trademarks.
The Complainant says that it is well-established that “a domain name that wholly incorporates a Complainant’s registered trademark may be sufficient to establish confusing similarity for purposes of the UDRP”. Moreover, the Complainant asserts that the addition of the generic Top-Level Domain suffix “.COM” does not change the overall impression of the designation as being connected to the trademark DALLOZ®. It does not prevent the likelihood of confusion between the disputed domain name and the Complainant, its trademarks and its associated domain names.
The Complainant asserts that the Respondent is not identified in the Whois database as the disputed domain name. Past panels have held that a Respondent was not commonly known by a disputed domain name if the WHOIS information was not similar to the disputed domain name. The Complainant contends that the Respondent is not affiliated with nor authorized by the Complainant in any way. The Complainant contends that the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the disputed domain name. The Complainant does not carry out any activity for, nor has any business with the Respondent. The Complainant says further that neither licence nor authorisation has been granted to the Respondent to make any use of the Complainant’s trademarks DALLOZ®, or apply for registration of the disputed domain name by the Complainant.
The Complainant asserts that the disputed domain name points to a registrar parking page where the domain name is offered for sale for 988 USD. It contends that this general offer to sell the disputed domain name evidences the Respondent’s lack of rights or legitimate interest.
The disputed domain name <lefebvredalloz.com>, according to the Complainant, was registered on the day of the filling of the corresponding trademark LEFEBVRE DALLOZ by the Complainant’s parent company LEFEBVRE SARRUT.
The disputed domain name includes the corresponding filed trademark in its entirety. Therefore, the Complainant contends that it evinces that the Respondent has knowledge of the Complainant, its trademark DALLOZ®, and its parent company and its filed trademark LEFEBVRE DALLOZ when he registered the disputed domain name. On those facts, the Complainant claims that the use of the Complainant’s trademark in the disputed domain name gives rise to the inference that the Respondent registered the disputed domain name for its trademark value.
Moreover, says the Complainant, the Respondent does not make any use of the disputed domain name but rather the disputed domain name resolves to a SEDO page displaying a general offer to sell the domain for 988 USD. The Complainant claims that the Respondent has failed to make an active use of the disputed domain name. Past panels say the Complainant have held that failure to actively use a domain name is evidence of bad faith registration and use. Furthermore, the Complainant contends that the Respondent has registered the disputed domain name only in order to sell it back for more than its out-of-pocket costs, which evinces bad faith registration and use.
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