Investment advisory publisher The Motley Fool Inc., which owns the domain name Fool.com, has failed in its attempt to appropriate Fools.com without compensation from the domain’s original registrant, Domain Works Inc. from Canada.
Domain Works had registered Fools.com in 1998. The company had initially redirected the domain to its corporate website and later set up a pay-per-click portal to earn advertising revenue.
Motely Fool Inc. owns U.S. trademarks such as THE MOTLEY FOOL and FOOL.COM, and trademarks for the generic words FOOL and FOOLISH.
The company’s lawyers Cooley Godward Kronish LLP argued before WIPO that Fools.com is substantially identical to two of its marks (FOOL.com and FOOL), the only difference being the addition of an ‘s’.
WIPO rejected the complaint and while domainer applaud the decision, we once again have to point out the flaws in the UDRP’s “bad faith” clause. The WIPO panel decided that Motley Fool Inc. had not proven Domain Works’s awareness of the company’s trademarks at the time of Fools.com’s registration.
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