Relevant Decisions

ConsumerDirect, Inc. v. SMARTCREDIT up, Forum FA2404002093940 <smartcreditup.com>, Transfer

Further, that Respondent registered the domain name in bad faith with false Whois information and is using it in bad faith by masquerading as Complainant for the purpose of phishing for personal and financial information.

AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH v. 3DNS Privacy, LLC, John Doe, WIPO D2024-0706, <fritz.box>, 3-member, Transfer

Little is known about the Respondent, which has not participated in the administrative proceeding. It has provided a patently false or fictitious name, false address and false telephone number to the Registrar… In cases involving a privacy or proxy service and irrespective of the disclosure of any underlying registrant, the appointed panel retains discretion to determine the respondent against which the case should proceed. Depending on the facts and circumstances of a particular case, e.g., where a timely disclosure is made, and there is no indication of a relationship beyond the provision of privacy or proxy registration services, a panel may find it appropriate to apply its discretion to record only the underlying registrant as the named respondent. On the other hand, e.g., where there is no clear disclosure, or there is some indication that the privacy or proxy provider is somehow related to the underlying registrant or use of the particular domain name, a panel may find it appropriate to record both the privacy or proxy service and any nominally underlying registrant as the named respondent. WIPO Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions, Third Edition, (“WIPO Overview 3.0”), section 4.4.5.

Taylor Wimpey PLC and Taylor Wimpey Holdings Limited v. Musa Abdul, WIPO D2024-0073 <taylorswimpey.com>, Transfer

The fact that the Respondent is associated with competitors of the Complainants and has provided false contact details to the WhoIs database also indicated bad faith.

LifeWave Inc. v. Wolfgang Klein, WIPO D2023-3333, <x39s.com>, Denied

The Respondent’s address was disclosed as an address in Düsseldorf, Afghanistan. Düsseldorf is in Germany, not Afghanistan, and the address supplied by the Respondent appears to be a genuinely German address including postal code. While not conclusive of the issue, the Respondent’s name also appears to be German in origin. The Panel considers that the Respondent most probably provided Afghanistan as its country erroneously when completing the registrant details for the disputed domain name. This is not an entirely uncommon error which can result from the fact that Afghanistan is often the first country in a list of possible countries provided in the form of a drop-down menu for the registrant to choose during the registration process. If the registrant does not select an alternative country via the menu, Afghanistan may remain as the default.

Delta Plus v. Domain Admin, WIPO D2023-2698 <deltaplus.com>, Denied

The Complainant included evidence to attempt to prove that the address of the Respondent in the Registrar’s records was inaccurate. This evidence shows that the address provided by the Respondent is a residential address, and does not prove bad faith.

Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. v. Anonymize, Inc. / Synergy Technologies, LLC, D2023-1708 <starofthesea.com>, 3-member, Denied, RDNH

In response to the Center’s request for registrar verification, the Registrar stated: “The registrant of the domain is a client of Epik and is utilizing Anonymize as a private proxy. Anonymize [is] a Whois proxy service provider, which this domain is currently using. Thus, the current registrant is: Anonymize, Inc.” It is unclear from the record what the relationship is between the Registrar and Anonymize, Inc., but the Panel notes that the website at <anonymize.com> states: “Epik is happy to offer you WHOIS Privacy via Anonymize Inc.” Therefore, it would appear that the Registrar is in a position, but has refused, to identify the underlying registrant, as typically occurs in similar proceedings.  Further, the Response states that Synergy Technologies is the registrant of the Disputed Domain Name and that “the Registrar is acting in violation of ICANN Rules by not updating the Respondent information upon receipt of a valid Complaint.” For purposes of this proceeding, the Panel considers the Respondent to be Synergy Technologies, LLC.

Rechtsanwälte Lampmann, Haberkamm & Rosenbaum Partnerschaft v. Privacy Department, IceNetworks Ltd. / Domain Admin, Whois Privacy Corp., WIPO D2021-1083, <ihr-law.org>, Transfer

The Panel notes that the underlying owner of the disputed domain name has not been clearly identified. Instead, there is a “Russian doll” scenario whereby the registrant “disclosed” by the Registrar following the filing of the Complaint turned out to be yet another privacy service. Section 4.4.6 of the WIPO Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions, Third Edition (“WIPO Overview 3.0”), notes that such “multi-layered obfuscation” may support an inference of bad faith, e.g., as an attempt to shield illegitimate conduct from a UDRP proceeding.

Digest Commentary

• Digest Vol. 3.41 <starofthesea.com>, Denied