On 23 January 2004, Sole Panelist David Williams QC, of the World Intellectual Property Organisation's (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center, delivered his decision in Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd v Vladimir Federov, WIPO Case No. D2003-0916.
Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd (complainant), an internationally successful independent travel information company, was the owner of 12 registered trademarks containing the words 'Lonely Planet', in Australia and in a number of other jurisdictions. The Panelist noted the complainant's trademarks had an extensive international reputation.
The complainant argued that the registration of the disputed domain names, 'lonleyplanet.com', 'loneleyplanet.com' and 'lonelyplanet.com' by Vladimir Federov (respondent), was confusingly similar to its registered trademarks, and that the respondent did not have any right or legitimate interest in the disputed domain names. It also argued that the respondent was not making legitimate or fair use of the domains, as two of the sites redirected internet traffic to the respondent's website, and that they were registered in bad faith.
The Panelist found that the respondent's domain names were simple and obvious misspellings of the complainant's trademarks, and concluded that because they redirected internet traffic to the respondent's website, which also offered travel services, the domain names were being used in a similar context. He conducted an aural and visual comparison of the names, and concluded that the domain names were similar enough to the complainant's registered trademarks to be confusingly similar. Additionally, the Panelist found that the respondent had no legitimate interest in the domain names, and that it registered the names for the purpose of diverting internet traffic away from the complainant's website. Hence, the domains names were registered in bad faith.
Accordingly, the Panelist ordered that the disputed domain names be transferred to the complainant.
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