A common mistake that people make when they’re just getting started in the domain name world is to buy domains that exactly match a company’s name in some new extension. The thought is, well Company X owns their exact-match .COM, they would definitely want it in .YEAH.
While this could be true…Company X wants it, they are going to take it, not buy it, and that’s what happened in the case of MonsterEnergy.app:
“Sole panellist Kaya Köklü ruled that the domain is both confusingly similar and that Stickler had mentioned in his email that he would be compensated, which shows bad faith as he attempted to gain financially.” (Source – IPProTheInternet)
In this case, the domain owner claims that they registered the domain for something called the “Monster – Energy Run” an event that has nothing to do with the drink. If this is indeed the name of the run, it sure sounds like a run that is related to Monster Energy drink, doesn’t it, or is that just me?
I always recommend that people take a quick look at the USPTO site to make sure the name they’re registering doesn’t have a Trademark in it. I also think that it’s not too hard to use common sense, I know for a fact that if I register a domain with the word “Facebook” in it – it infringes on a Trademark, doesn’t matter what other words are in the name or what extension the domain ends with.
IMO, Monster Energy is a pretty well known global brand, it seems hard to miss the Trademark here, but not everyone knows that you can’t go out and register names that violate Trademarks. In this case, it is really hard to know whether the original registrant actually knew they were breaking any rules when they registered the name.
What do you think? Is this is clear case or should did the registrant get screwed here?
