In this episode of my exploration of important and interesting decisions under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), I discuss a case involving the domain name <juu1vapor.com> — which contains the number “1” instead of the letter "L", making it visually similar to the Complainant's JUUL trademark. The case is JUUL Labs, Inc. v. han shun fei.
As I explain in the video, the Respondent used the domain name in connection with a website offering unauthorized Juul products for sale. Depending on the font, the numeral “1” in the domain name really looks like the letter “L” — which means that Internet users seeing a link to the website might think that they were actually visiting an authorized Juul website instead of a website operated by a cybersquatter.
The UDRP panel in this case wrote:
Respondent’s <juu1vapor.com> domain name contains Complainant’s JUUL trademark, misspelled by substituting a graphically similar “1” character for the mark’s “l,” followed by the suggestive term “vapor”…. The differences between Respondent’s domain name and Complainant’s trademark are insufficient to distinguish the <juu1vapor.com> domain name from Complainant’s JUUL trademark for the purposes of [the UDRP].
For trademark owners, the key point is this: Be on the lookout for look-alike domain names, because cybersquatters can use them to confuse your customers. While probably nobody would actually type one of this misspelled domain names, cyebrsquatters use them to mislead Internet users by tricking them to click on links such as in phishing emails. Fortunately, the UDRP is well-equipped to deal with this issue.
Watch the video below (6 minutes, 9 seconds) or on the GigaLaw YouTube channel.
