Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ii. Rights or legitimate interests
In light of the evidence put forward by the Complainant, the Panel considered
it probable that the Respondent had no connection with 'Cava' such as to give
him any right or legitimate interest in respect of 'Cava'.
6.217
iii. Registered and used in bad faith
The Panel was unable to agree with the Complainant that the disputed domain
name was registered in bad faith. First, the complaint was launched more than a
decade after the domain name was registered. While a delay of this length need
not have been fatal to a complaint under the Policy, it was nonetheless likely to
give rise to evidentiary difficulties.
6.218
Secondly, the domain name was not a trade mark or service mark, but a generic
term for a genus of wine. Thirdly, there was no direct evidence of intent on the
part of the Respondent to target the Complainant at the time of registration.
Fourthly, at the date of registration of the disputed domain name, the Com-
plainant did not own any trade mark rights in respect of the word 'cava' per se.
While the Complainant was in existence when the domain name was regis-
tered, the Panel did not believe that the Respondent could be expected to have
anticipated at that time that the Complainant would be able to obtain trade
mark rights in respect of the word 'cava'. The Panel also regarded it as unlikely
that when the Respondent registered the domain name he had in mind the
Complainant and/or any future trade mark rights of the Complainant. The
Panel was therefore not persuaded that the Respondent registered the domain
name in bad faith within the meaning of para 4(a)(iii) of the Policy.
6.219
(d)
Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma v Domain Name Clearing Company,
LLC
225
The Complainant was a consortium of certified manufacturers of Parma ham
and the owner of the certification mark 'PARMA HAM', registered in the USA
on 12 November 1996 in relation to 'ham products'. The certificate of
registration bears the following mention: 'The certification mark is used by
persons authorised by the certifier to certify the regional origin of the product to
which the mark is applied'. The Respondent registered the domain name
<parmaham.com> on 26 April 1997. On 30 January 1997 it had registered the
domain
6.220
names
<prosciutto.com>
and
<parmaprosciutto.com>, 'Prosciutto'
being the Italian word for ham.
225
WIPO Case No. D2000-0629
