Company filed cybersquatting claim against against valuable three letter domain name.
A company that rents space for observatory telescopes in California has been found (pdf) guilty of reverse domain name hijacking.
Sierra Remote Observatories, LLC filed a cybersquatting dispute against the valuable domain name sro.com.
The company initially argued that sro.com was acquired after it obtained a U.S. trademark registration for SRO in 2022.
However, panelist Nick Gardner noted the company “relied upon a complex and unrealistic analysis of WhoIs data” to come to the determination that the domain had recently changed hands.
In fact, the domain was acquired by the current registrant for $65,000 in 2017. He also lives in Norway, far away from the Complainant.
Once presented with this evidence, Sierra Remove Observatories pushed forward with its case, relying on common law trademarks that pre-dated the purchase. However, it didn’t produce any evidence to substantiate its common law rights.
Even if it had, its case was weak. It argued:
Here, the Respondent apparently acquired the SRO.COM domain name for $65,000.00 but as of April 25, 2025, the asking price was over ten times that amount, at $690,000.00 with a minimum opening offer of $448,500.00…On page 4, section C of his Response, the Respondent himself acknowledged, “SRO.com is a valuable three-letter domain, and its pricing reflects standard market valuation rather than an attempt to exploit the complainant”. This indicates that Respondent never intended himself to use the domain name, but always had the intention of selling it for a significant profit.
Even if someone purchased a domain to resell because it’s valuable, that’s not indicative of bad faith. Gardner wrote:
Although in some circumstances asking a very large price may give rise to an inference of bad faith registration and use, the Panel does not consider that to be the case here, given the nature of the Disputed Domain Name as a three-letter acronym. Three letter “.com” domain names are likely to be of substantial value given that they are likely to be readily memorable, there are only a limited number of them, and there will typically be many organisations who will have a name or brand name that corresponds in acronym form to the domain name.
Sierra IP Law represented Sierra Remote Observatories, LLC. The domain owner did not have an attorney.
Source: https://domainnamewire.com/
