The Complainant has requested the consolidation of the proceedings, since in its opinion, the disputed domain names, although apparently registered under the names of different Respondents, are in fact subject to a common control. The circumstances upon which the Complainant relies to demonstrate the existence of a common control in the registration and use of the disputed domain names, are the following (not all these circumstances are simultaneously present):
- same registration dates or registration dates very close one another;
- identical or almost identical websites;
- same Registrars;
- same IP address;
- same domain name structure.
Furthermore, for 11 of the disputed domain names the language of the Registration Agreement is English, while for the remaining eight, it is Chinese. The Complainant has requested that this UDRP proceeding be conducted in English on the basis of the fact that the Respondent appears to be familiar with this language. In particular, two of the eight domain names for which the Registration Agreement is in Chinese, lead to a website, which is also available in English. Furthermore, the Respondent for these domain names has exchanged correspondence in English (see below). Lastly, the structure of the disputed domain names together with the services allegedly offered by the Respondent confirms that the Respondent is certainly familiar with the financial sector and the business activities in this field, which are largely conducted in English.
Besides these procedural aspects, the Complainant maintains the following.
The disputed domain names are confusingly similar to the Complainant's trademarks EUREX or BÖRSE FRANKFURT, as the case may be.
In particular, some of the disputed domain names fully include the EUREX mark, followed by the elements "rua", "ja", "fh", sz", "ab", "ty, "mjd" and "hk". Some of these additional elements are understood as geographical references; overall, they do not prevent a finding of confusing similarity.
The other disputed domain names contain the trademark BÖRSE FRANKFURT, with the only difference that the Respondent changed the o-Umlaut to "oe", which is the letter combination that is commonly used on keyboards with international script. The additional letters following the Complainant's trademark are either geographical designations (such as "ru" and "hk") or short acronyms ("vip", "pro"), or letters deprived of a specific meaning. In both cases, they do not affect the dominant element of the disputed domain names, which is "boersefrankfurt".
The Complainant also maintains that the Respondent lacks rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain names.
In particular, the Complainant never authorised, the Respondent to use any of its trademarks in any manner whatsoever, including with the frame of a domain name. The Complainant never granted a license to use its trademarks to the Respondent, and the latter is no affiliated with the Complainant. At the time of the filing of the Complaint, only the disputed domain names <eurexrua.com>, <boersefrankfurpro.com>, and <boersefrankfurtvip.com> lead to active websites. The websites available under these disputed domain names are largely identical. They offer investment opportunities in high-risk blockchain based derivatives.
For the domain names <boersefrankfurpro.com>, and <boersefrankfurtvip.com> the entity allegedly providing these services is only identified with the copyright notice "(c) Boerse Frankfurt Copyright". Under the "About Us" section of the website, the following statement is displayed "The platform promises that it will strictly abide by the relevant German laws and conduct business under the supervision of financial regulators". Moreover, the platform prominently depicts the acronym "BF" as a logo.
For the domain name <eurexrua.com>, the entity allegedly providing the services mentioned above is identified through the claim "(c) 2020 Eurex Copyright" and, in the "About Us" section of the website, the following statement appears: "This platform is the world’s leading digital asset trading platform. It operates in conjunction with the Deutsche Börse and the Swiss National Stock Exchange (SIX Swiss Exchange). We constantly strive to improve security features to ensure the security of our customers’ digital assets. The model is to bring customers projects with sustainable value, and only projects with the highest quality will be selected and provide transaction services. The core management team members graduated from world-renowned universities and have rich experience in the financial industry and digital asset exchange operations. Based on the groundbreaking open source agreements proposed by BitShares and Ethereum, we are based on the principle of combining with real business practices, Breaking the closed system of the original blockchain, East Fortune visualizes the artificial high-intelligence blockchain operating system. At the same time, it combines artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. We hope to create a world-class blockchain that is truly commercially available. Operating system, platform promise: will strictly abide by relevant laws and conduct business under the supervision of financial regulatory agencies."
Through all these statements and use of the Complainant's trademarks, the Respondent is implying an affiliation that does not exist and is thus misleading the potential consumers as to the true origin of the services offered through the relevant websites . With respect to the other disputed domain names, which do not lead to an active website, any use of them would serve the same purpose as the current one of the active domain names.
Lastly, in respect of bad faith, the Complainant contends that this is the third proceeding containing almost identical domain names and websites. Most of the disputed domain names were registered shortly after the second Complaint was transmitted to the Respondent. As the disputed domain names include the Complainant's trademarks, they convey the incorrect impression that at a connection with the Complainant exists.
At least three of the disputed domain names lead to active websites, where the Respondent is allegedly providing financial trading services of high-risk financial assets such as cryptocurrencies. The statements appearing in the "About Us" section infer that there is a collaboration between the Complainant and the Respondent. These websites do not contain any reference to a company name or address, nor to the regulation applying to the allegedly offered financial services. For attracting traders, it is necessary to appear as genuine and reputable as possible and the Respondent has done so by registering domain names that create a likelihood of confusion with the Complainant's marks and by attempting to mislead consumers by creating an impression of sponsorship, affiliation or endorsement of the Respondent's website, or of a product or service on the Respondent's website.
The Respondent has also actively searched for traders, presenting them the possibility to obtain high earnings, luring them to its website at www.eurexrua.com, where they invested large amounts of money that they were no longer able to recover, instead asking for more through various ruses.
Lastly, the Complainant points out that at least for some of the disputed domain names, the Respondent provided an incorrect address at the time of their registration.
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