A domain name can’t be renewed in bad faith under UDRP.
A chain of coffee shops has tried (and failed) to use the “renewed in bad faith” argument in a cybersquatting dispute.
Revelry Partners, LLC, which runs coffee and wine bars by the name Ascension Coffee, filed a UDRP against AscensionCoffee.com.
The complainant claimed rights back to 2012, but the current owner registered the domain name in 2010.
Represented by Lisa Greenwald-Swire of Fish & Richardson, P.C., the coffee company made the argument that the domain owner renewed the domain name in bad faith last year.
Actually, she got a bit more creative than that. The National Arbitration Forum decision indicates that the argument was that the respondent reregistered the domain after allowing the domain registration to lapse.
The respondent didn’t reply to the assertions, so the panel reached out to GoDaddy to inquire what the circumstances were for the 2017 renewal. GoDaddy responded:
A review of ASCENSIONCOFFEE.COM shows that the domain was auto-renewed on December 8, 2017 per the settings in the account.
The domain expired on December 3. So the domain might have been renewed during the grace period, perhaps after updating a payment method. But no matter; this domain was continuously registered by the respondent since 2010.
The three-person panel found in favor of the respondent because the dates precluded a finding of bad faith registration.
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Author: Andrew Allemann