A French nutritional supplements company, Nutriforce France SAS, attempted to gain control of the domain name nutriforce.com through a reverse domain name hijacking claim, a situation resolved by a panelist from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Nutriforce France registered the domain nutriforce.fr in 2023 but sought to dispute nutriforce.com, which had been purchased at an auction in 2020 by the domain investment firm SyncPoint, Inc. The auction resulted in a payment of $5,050 for the domain.

In December 2024, Nutriforce France made a very low offer of $80 to acquire nutriforce.com. SyncPoint’s response was sarcastic, suggesting that they could simply donate the domain instead. When Nutriforce expressed frustration over SyncPoint’s lack of cooperation, SyncPoint questioned the urgency behind a domain they valued at only $80.

The panelist concluded that Nutriforce’s claim was unsubstantiated because the firm had no trademark rights at the time SyncPoint acquired nutriforce.com. Panelist Adam Taylor specifically deemed the complaint an example of "Plan B" reverse domain name hijacking, citing that Nutriforce failed to provide pertinent details about the commencement of their trading activities. He noted that the complaint seemed to create a misleading impression that Nutriforce had prior rights to the name.

The judgment emphasized that Nutriforce’s attempts to acquire the domain were made without legitimate legal grounds, particularly since they attempted to annex a domain already owned by a third party without showing evidence of legitimate rights preceding its acquisition. The case highlighted established policy precedents, such as the legitimacy of domain trading for profit, a practice that SyncPoint was engaged in without intent to infringe upon any trademarks.

In the end, both parties were internally represented, and the case served as a reminder of the complexities involved in domain name ownership and the legal nuances surrounding intellectual property rights.

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