Hard Rock Cafe,a chain of theme restaurants submitted a complant to the National Arbitration Forum,requesting the domain name hardrockpoker.net to be transferred from the respondent to the complainant.
The complainant,represented by Zachary D. Messa,is the owner of many registrations of the mark "Hard Rock " with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Therefore,they contended in the complaint that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to its trademark.
Moreover,they said that the the respondent,Ronald Robinson,registered and used the domain name in bad faith.
"The website resolving from the <hardrockpoker.net> domain name displays banner advertisements and links to gambling websites. The Panel infers that Respondent receives click-through-fees for these links and advertisements. Given the confusingly similar nature of the disputed domain name and that Complainant owns a casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Internet users are likely to become confused as to Complainant’s affiliation or approval of the resolving website. By receiving click-through-fees, Respondent is seeking profit from this confusion. The Panel finds this use constitutes bad faith registration and use ."
Because the respondent failed to submit a response in this proceeding and because the complainant managed to demonstrate all the elements needed ,the Panel decided the disputed domain name to be transferred from the respondent to the complainant.
You can see the decision here .
- Follow us on :
