A National Arbitration Forum panelist has awarded the domain name SantaMonicaPatch.com to AOL.AOL submitted a complaint a while ago,asserting legal rights over the disputed domain name.
The company and its subsidiary Patch Media Corporation own the trademark for the "Patch" word in many countries worldwide .Therefore,they contended that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to its trademark.Moreover,AOL contended that the respondent registered and used the disputed domain name in bad faith :
"Respondent is using the <santamonicapatch.com> domain name to route Internet users to Respondent’s newspaper website which offers services that compete with those offered by Complainant. "
"Respondent is attempting to attract Internet users to its website by using a domain name that is confusingly similar to Complainant’s PATCH mark."
The respondent ,Santa Monita Media Company LLC failed to submit a response in this proceeding.Therefore,the Panel argued in favor of AOL and orderd the disputed domain name to be transferred from the respondent to the complainant.
You can read the decision here .
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