Complaint for onelove.net denied at NAF

A Complaint made by Raising Cane’s USA, LLC was denied at the National Arbitration Forum. The Complaint was about the domain name onelove.net and the Respondent was Eddie Nguyen.

The Panel decided that the Complaint failed at the second element of the UDRP. (Rights or Legitimate Interests) Respondent argued that it purchased the disputed domain name to use as a vanity e-mail, and has used it for personal correspondence since December of 1998. The Panel found that Respondent’s use of the disputed domain name to enable Respondent to use the onelove.net suffix in a vanity e-mail address used for personal correspondence demonstrated rights and legitimate interests under UDRP ¶ 4(a)(ii).

The Panel didn’t make a ruling on the third element of the UDRP because there was no need to. (Registration and Use in Bad Faith) The Complaint would have failed on the 3rd element too, as Respondent registered the onelove.net domain name on December 1, 1998 and Complainant’s trademark registration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office was made December 27, 2005. Respondent’s registration of the disputed domain name predated Complainant’s rights in the ONE LOVE mark for about 7 years.

This case too would have been a good example of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) but the Respondent didn’t ask the Panel for such a ruling.