The Complainant is a leading Italian banking group and one of the main financial operators in Europe. The Complainant is the company resulting from the merger (effective as of January 1, 2007) between Banca Intesa S.p.A. and Sanpaolo IMI S.p.A., two of the top Italian banking groups. The Complainant has a market capitalisation in the Euro zone exceeding 64,6 billion Euro and operates in Italy through a network of approximately 3,300 branches distributed throughout the country, with a market share of more than 15% in most Italian regions. The Complainant offers its services to approximately 13,6 million customers in Italy. The Complainant also operates in Central-East Europe, with a network of approximately 900 branches and over 7,4 million customers, and its international network is present in 25 countries, mostly in the Mediterranean area, the United States, Russia, China and India.<\/p>\n
The disputed domain name was registered on October 8, 2024 and is inactive.<\/p>", "other_legal_proceedings": "
The Panel is not aware of any other legal proceedings which are pending or decided and which relate to the disputed domain name.<\/p>", "no_response_filed": "
The Complainant contends that the requirements of the Policy have been met and that the disputed domain name should be transferred to it.<\/p>\n
More specifically, the Complainant contends that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to the Respondent's mark, as it fully reproduces such mark followed by the term \"management\", which merely refers to the organizational structure and the administration of the Complainant. Moreover, the Complainant contends that the Respondent lacks rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name as the Complainant did not authorize the Respondent to use the disputed domain and did not license its INTESA SANPAOLO and its other marks to the Complainant. Moreover, the Respondent does not appear to have been commonly known by the disputed domain name. The Complainant also argues that the Respondent is not making any fair or noncommercial use of the disputed domain name.<\/p>\n
As far as registration and use of the disputed domain name in bad faith is concerned, the Complainant maintains that its INTESA SANPAOLO trademark is distinctive and well known. The fact that the Respondent registered the disputed domain name confusingly similar to this mark indicates that the Respondent had knowledge of the Complainant’s trademark at the time of the registration of the disputed domain name. In addition, had the Respondent carried a simple online search using the keyword \"intesa sanpaolo\", it would have only retrieved references connected to the Complainant. Therefore, it is more than likely that the disputed domain name would not have been registered if it were not for Complainant’s trademark.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the disputed domain name is not used in connection with a bona fide offering of goods or services. More particularly, there
are circumstances indicating that the Respondent registered or acquired the disputed domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring it to the Complainant or to one of the Complainant's competitors for valuable consideration in excess of the Respondent’s documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the domain name. Albeit the disputed domain name does not resolve to an active website, passive holding of a domain name with knowledge that the domain name infringes another party’s trademark is evidence of bad faith registration and use. In particular, passive holding of a domain name may, in appropriate circumstances, be consistent with a finding of bad faith. This happens, for instance if a complainant’s mark is well known, and there is no conceivable use that could be made of the domain name that would not amount to an infringement of the complainant’s trade mark rights. This applies to the case at issue, where the Complainant's INTESA SANPAOLO mark enjoys strong reputation and no legitimate or fair use of the disputed domain name by the Respondent is conceivable.<\/p>\n
The risk of a wrongful use of the disputed domain name is even higher in the present case, since the Complainant operates in the banking field and is therefore strongly exposed to phishing attacks in order to steal the Complainant's customer sensitive information to distract their money or for some other illicit use. The only other reason why the Respondent could have registered the disputed domain name is to resell it to the Complainant for a valuable consideration exceeding the documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the disputed domain name. <\/p>\n
The Respondent did not reply to the Complainant's contentions as it did not file an administratively compliant Response.<\/p>", "rights": "
The Complainant has, to the satisfaction of the Panel, shown the disputed domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the Complainant has rights (within the meaning of paragraph 4(a)(i) of the Policy).<\/p>", "no_rights_or_legitimate_interests": "
The Complainant has, to the satisfaction of the Panel, shown the Respondent to have no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the disputed domain name (within the meaning of paragraph 4(a)(ii) of the Policy).<\/p>", "bad_faith": "
The Complainant has, to the satisfaction of the Panel, shown the disputed domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith (within the meaning of paragraph 4(a)(iii) of the Policy).<\/p>", "procedural_factors": "
The Panel is satisfied that all procedural requirements under Policy were met and there is no other reason why it would be inappropriate to provide a decision.<\/p>", "decision": "Accepted", "panelists": [ "Angelica Lodigiani" ], "date_of_panel_decision": "2025-01-14 00:00:00", "informal_english_translation": "
The Complainant is the owner of various registrations for the trademarks INTESA SANPAOLO and INTESA in many jurisdictions worldwide, including the following:<\/p>\n
- INTESA SANPAOLO (word mark), International trademark registration No. 920896, registered on March 7, 2007, duly renewed, for goods and services in classes 9, 16, 35, 36, 38, 41 and 42, designating various jurisdictions worldwide;<\/p>\n
- INTESA SANPAOLO (word mark), European Union trademark registration No. 5301999, registered on June 18, 2007, duly renewed, for goods and services in classes 35, 36 and 38.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the Complainant is the owner of various domain names including the trademark INTESA SANPAOLO, among which <intesasanpaolo.com>, which resolves to the Complainant’s main website.<\/p>", "decision_domains": { "INTESASANPAOLO-MANAGEMENT.COM": "TRANSFERRED" }, "panelist": null, "panellists_text": null }