New company tried to snag aged domain through UDRP.
Can consuming too much caffeine lead to making spurious cybersquatting claims?
Perhaps that’s what happened with Jiggle LLC in a UDRP it filed against the domain name jiggle.com.
Jiggle LLC sells caffeinated gummies at its website jiggle .cafe. It filed the dispute against the valuable jiggle.com domain name despite the domain being registered well before the company existed.
In its pleadings, it acknowledged the domain was registered in 1996. It turns out that domain investor Chad Wright acquired it around 2015. Either way, that was well before Jiggle LLC was formed in 2024.
World Intellectual Property Organization panelist Kimberley Chen Nobles determined this was a case of reverse domain name hijacking. She wrote:
Here, the evidence demonstrates that Complainant was aware of Respondent’s ownership and use of the Domain Name well before filing the Complaint. This is evidenced by Complainant’s submission, in its original Complaint, and also in its originally filed Annex 4b, that the Domain Name appeared to be registered on February 28, 1996. Complainant, in its originally filed Complaint, also noted that the Domain Name was offered for sale at USD 350,000 and submitted evidence of the same in its originally filed Annex 3a. These submissions demonstrate that Complainant was aware of Respondent’s ownership of the Domain Name before filing the Complaint and that Complainant had researched and considered, or failed to negotiate a price for the Domain Name it was willing to pay…
…In conclusion, Complainant’s actions demonstrate Complainant knew or should have known that it could not prove the essential elements required by the UDRP, particularly given the significant time gap between the domain registration and Complainant’s trademark rights. This conduct falls squarely within the circumstances described in WIPO Overview 3.0, section 4.16, justifying a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking.
Jiggle LLC was internally represented. John Berryhill represented Wright.
Source: https://domainnamewire.com/
