Reg-Vardy decision attacked for distorting the dispute rules

The Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (“UDRP”) allows a domain name to be transferred if three tests are satisfied. First, that a domain name is identical or confusingly similar to your trade mark; second, that the owner has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name; and third, that it was registered and used in bad faith. In this case David Wilkinson an aggrieved customer of UK car dealer Reg Vardy Plc registered the domain name reg-vardy.com and set up a web site for “customer driven complaints” against the company.

The WIPO panel found that the domain name was confusingly similar to the Reg Vardy trademark and that Mr Wilkinson had no legitimate interests in registering the domain name. The evidence presented before the panel was sufficient for the sole panelist to conclude that the registration had been made in bad faith for the purposes of disrupting the business of Reg Vardy.

However, ICANN Watch criticised the case because the UDRP expressly states that bad faith exists only where the registration is made with the intention of disrupting the business of a competitor. The panel acknowledged that Mr Wilkinson was not a competitor, but concluded that a transfer could still be justified under the UDRP because he found that the registration was “primarily for the purpose of disrupting [Reg Vardy’s] business with the objective of causing harm and nuisance to [Reg Vardy]”. Mr Wilkinson is now running his site from the domain name regvardysucks.com.