A recent decision by a World Intellectual Property Organization panel revealed that a Colombian entrepreneur attempted to engage in reverse domain name hijacking concerning the domain watertimer.com. Felipe Ospina, the complainant, filed a UDRP against the current domain registrant, who had purchased the domain in 2023 for $4,120.
Ospina launched a new business and sought trademark protection for the term “Water Timer,” using the domain watertime.co alongside other domains such as watertimer.app and watertimer.io. After failing to acquire the desired .com domain, he resorted to filing a UDRP.
Panelist Edoardo Fano concluded that the domain was neither registered nor used in bad faith. He pointed out that the registrant acquired the domain before Ospina filed any trademark applications and noted a lack of evidence suggesting that the registrant was targeting Ospina.
In declaring the attempt a reverse domain name hijacking, Fano remarked that Ospina either knew or should have known there was no proof of any bad faith on the part of the registrant. Moreover, he indicated that a complainant risks a ruling of reverse domain name hijacking when they try unsuccessfully to acquire a domain name and then abuse the UDRP process to obtain it.
Interestingly, both parties represented themselves in the case.
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