In this case study video, I explain how Priceline won a dispute under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) for the domain name <fuckpriceline.com>.
As I explain in the video, there’s obviously no shortage of criticism on the Internet, and sometimes that criticism takes place on a website using a domain name that consists of a company’s name plus a pejorative word. But not all such domain names are protected as so-called “gripe sites,” which is exactly what happened in the Priceline case.
There’s a long history of decisions under the UDRP that address the intersection of trademark rights and free speech, especially when someone uses a domain name to create a website criticizing a trademark owner. And when a domain name contains a trademark plus a pejorative word such as “sucks” (which is not uncommon) or even the f-word (as happened in the Priceline case), it raises some interesting issues with respect to all three parts of the UDRP’s test.
In the video, I explain how the UDRP panel decided all three parts of the UDRP test, including on the issue of whether the domain name registrant had rights or legitimate interests in the domain name, as is sometimes the case in disputes involving gripe sites. But here, the panel said:
The failure of Respondent to actually use the Domain Name for criticism purposes (or to even advance any indication of his plans for the same), coupled with Respondent’s remark that he would be willing to sell the Domain Name to Complainant at a price that would allow him to recoup the money that, according to Respondent, Complainant somehow owes him, supports the Panel’s conclusion that Respondent did not register the Domain Name to air his grievances about Complainant but instead as some sort of leverage against Complainant to recoup what he claims is owed to him…
This decision is a good reminder for trademark owners to look beyond a domain name itself, to look at how a domain name is actually being used, or not used, to determine whether a UDRP complaint might be a good way to tackle a cybersquatter masquerading as a disgruntled customer.
