YCD.ca Transferred To Complainant (1.Viewing)

Dispute Number: DCA-17100-CIRA
Domain Name: <ycd.ca>.
Complainant: Nanaimo Airport Commission, Nanaimo, Canada
Registrant: Chris Stewart
Registrar: Namespro.ca
Panel: The Honourable Neil Anthony Brown KC (Chair), Leslie E. Maerov, FCIArb and
James Plotkin, Q.Arb.
Service Provider: Canadian International Internet Dispute Resolution Center

Click to expand...

https://ciidrc.org/wp-content/uploa...ted-Decision-ycd.ca-September-22-2022-SGD.pdf
The owner wanted no less than $10,000 and these guys offered $3,000. They went with Plan B and filed UDRP and got the domain.

That is complete BS.

This is apparently the nail in the coffin:

“The evidence of the Wayback Machine shows that from January 2014 it carried depictions of an airliner taking off and an airliner landing and the words “Arrivals” and “Departures”. The Registrant at one point stated that Voodoo was responsible for the content of whatever web page it was that was captured by the Wayback Machine. It certainly showed that someone was well aware that the domain name had a connection with an airport and the arrival and departure of aircraft. The icons of the aircraft look suspiciously like a promotion of the domain name and its possible sale on the basis that it is connected with an airport and that it might be of particular value and interest to someone connected with airports, airlines or aviation or merely someone who would like to make money from it.

The Panel’s concern is that this evidence has appeared, but with no explanation from the Registrant as to whether he knew about it or did anything to deter it. As the evidence shows this landing page with the “arrival” and “departure” buttons had been hosted at the domain name for some time, the Panel is prepared to infer that the Registrant was aware of it. Clearly, the Panel is limited in the conclusions it can reach on the limited evidence, but the icons on the web page to which the domain name resolved, only weaken the Registrant’s case that his buying and keeping and offering the domain name for sale had nothing to with its being the IATA code for Nanaimo Airport.”

I was aware of this coming and the complainant had a strong trademark but it was not even for the name of the airport.

Yes the parked page was a problem but for me the problem is that owning a domain for commerce (as in domaining) is not looked at as legitimate when it has been legitimized in UDRP's.

Chris is a member here and I can tell you this weighed a bit on him, but the 3 letters had very little to no other legitimate application which made it difficult to defend.

The other issue is the fact that the domain itself was not worth a lot in resale and had Chris hired a lawyer he would have received a significant bill which probably would not have paid off in the end.

This decision is a shame all the way around and it can have implications for many members here with generic 3 or 4 letter domains.

interesting, I wouldn't think an airport code would be protected by a trademark, more like a public domain thing. Did the parked page have ads on it? What about if it had been an information page about the airport - kind of like a fan site? If the domain owner didn't contact the airport about selling the domain it seems a bit of a harsh decision.

I believe this is a unique case where the airport actually uses the TM YCD. In most cases the airports in Canada are not using their airport code. If they are, it comes as an after thought.

Although Toronto airport code is YYZ it has always went by Pearson international. I still don’t believe this decision is fair as there are alternate uses of domains. I’ve also had issues with Voodoo displaying ads without my knowledge. One of the reasons I dropped parking many years ago!