The Australian business registered the domain name in April 1998, one year after incorporation as Spirit Airlines. One year previously, the US company applied for a US trade mark for Spirit Airlines, having traded under the name since 1992. The Australian company had a business plan for entry into the airline market as Spirit Airlines, but it took no action. In 1999, the US company demanded the domain name, claiming trade mark infringement; this led to the offer by the Australian company to transfer the name for $200,000.
In accordance with the dispute rules, the US company had to show that:
The panel concluded that since the Australian company had been incorporated under the name Spirit Airlines in March 1997 and had commissioned a corporate plan for an airline service, this was sufficient evidence of the company’s intention to offer airline services under a name that corresponded to the domain name.
Despite the Australian company never using the domain name and offering it for sale to the US company at a price considerably higher than the cost of registration, and renewing its registration of the domain name in April 2000 after it had abandoned its airline plans, the sole WIPO panellist said that there was no evidence to suggest that it had not still intended to use the domain name for legitimate purposes at the time of renewal. Accordingly, the US company lost its case.