Armored car company tires reverse domain name hijacking

Attempted domain name hijacking thwarted.

How’s this for irony: a company that builds armored vehicles to help people protect themselves from attacks has tried hijacking three domain names.

1141931 Ontario Inc., dba INKAS Group of Companies, filed two disputes with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against the domain names inkas.ae, inkasarmor.com and inkas-group.com.

The domains are registered to Ulugebekhon Maksumov, who runs his own armored vehicle business in the UAE. He started the business under a relationship with the Canadian INKAS company, using the same name. He later had a falling out with the company, and Maksumov continued running the business in the UAE.

The parties have been fighting over trademarks in court, and the Complainant decided to try its hand with cybersquatting claims at WIPO.

A three-member panel decided that it was clear that the domain registrant has rights or legitimate interests in the domain names.

And even though it wasn’t requested, the panel found this was a case of reverse domain name hijacking:

The Complainant is represented by counsel, and it should have been obvious that the Complaint would face obstacles in establishing the second and third elements where the Respondent was formerly in business with the Complainant, had been doing business under “Inkas” names for more than 20 years (while commercial websites were operating with the disputed domain name and the Respondent was using an “Inkas” email address to communicate with the Complainant), and the Respondent had registered INKAS trademarks in the UAE. The Complaint nevertheless omitted or failed to address such material facts and instead made only conclusory allegations of fraud, counterfeiting, and misuse of proprietary information, without offering supporting evidence.

The complaints list the Complainant’s CEO as its representative, although the decision states the Complainant was represented by counsel.

Zak Muscovitch represented the domain name owner.