In a previous post, we already said there was a conflict between the owner of facebook.nl and facebook.com. Facebook.com believed that the Dutchman, Mike Kolart, abused his domain name to create confusion and save money from ads. Kolart, however, denied this and said he had already registered the domain name before there was such a thing like facebook.com. When Kolart refused a hugh amount of money, offered by facebook.com to buy his domain name, facebook.com brought the case before WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation).
Meanwhile WIPO ruled in favor of facebook.com. This judgement was based on two reasons. Firstly the domain name facebook.nl was linked to a forum or to Stepstone.nl. Secondly, WIPO doesn’t agree on the fact that Kolart registered the domain name in June 2005. According the documents of the .nl registry (SIDN) the domain name was registered in September 2007. However, in 2007, facebook was already worldknown.
Based on this two reasons, WIPO means that Kolart registered the domain name in bad faith. He also can’t prove he has a legitimate interest in this domain name. Therefore the domain name facebook.nl needs to be contributed to facebook.com within 10 days.
‘I really don’t know how to react on this ruling,’ says Kolart. ‘What WIPO says isn’t right. I can prove that I have the domain name in my possession since 2005. I can submit invoices proving this,’ adds Kolart. He doesn’t intend to appeal against this ruling. ‘I’ve already lost a lot of money just by paying lawyers,’ says Kolart, ‘I’d like to appeal but I’m afraid to loose even more money,’ he adds. If Kolart would lose his appeal, he won’t only have to pay his lawyers’ costs but also those of Facebooks lawyers.
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This post was written by lieve on April 16, 2009
if he could prove ownership of his domain name since 2005 by way of invoices , then how could a judge rule against him . If it is a case of “i can prove” then why didnt he simply prove it because in the txt above it states the judge found he could not prove he had the domain since 2005……. im confused
WIPO based his decision on documents from SIDN (.nl registry). According to this documents, the owner registered facebook.nl in 2007 and not in 2005. However in 2007 Facebook was already worldknown.
However the owner says he can prove he owns the name since 2005. I think the only reason he doesn’t want to appeal, is because he’s scared to lose and to spend any more money on this case. He was very sure that WIPO would say he was right but they didn’t. I think therefore he doesn’t want to appeal.