Avon,the world's largest direct seller of cosmtics and related beauty products,wants rights over startavon.com.
But,taking a closely look in the complaint things are a little bit different: Complainant has used the designation “start.youravon.com“in connection with promotions to recruit prospective independent sales representatives to sell its array of products."Respondent registered the disputed domain name in January 2007 using a credit card registered to her daughter. Initially the disputed domain name was registered under the name “Avon L.T.D.” using a Las Vegas, Nevada, United States address and telephone number and an email address of “Avonbusinessowner@yahoo.com.” In February or March 2009 Respondent placed the disputed domain name under an identity shield provided by PrivacyProtect.org.
Respondent’s daughter was until recently an independent sales representative for Complainant. For a time Respondent’s <startavon.com> domain name redirected those who accessed the site to “www.start.youravon.com,” a web site operated by Complainant for recruiting new independent sales representatives referred to the company by Complainant’s current representatives. Though the parties differ on the specific details of Complainant’s recruitment referral scheme, the parties agree that Complainant pays commissions to its current sales representatives when they recruit new sales representatives once the new representatives begin selling AVON products at a specified level. In order for an existing sales representative to receive proper credit for recruitment referrals, the new representative, upon enrollment, must enter the existing representative’s special referral code."
All in all the panel ruled in favor of Avon Products, Inc.,ordering the transfer of the domain name "startavon.com" to complainant.