WTF? UDRP Panel Finds OBSS.com is Confusingly Similar To TM: OBSS BUSINESS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS

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A one member UDRP panel, just rejected the attempt of OBSS Bilisim Bilgisayar Hizmetleri Danismanlik Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi (yes that is the company’s name) of Istanbul, Turkey to grab the domain name OBSS.com

OBSS.com was registered on August 5, 2003, the trademark was registered in 2012.

So the Complaint was dismissed by the panelist.

The only noteworthy part about the UDRP decision is that one member panel of Kaya Köklü found that the domain OBSS.com is confusingly similar to the trademark of the Complainant OBSS BUSINESS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS trademark of the Complainant.

“”The Panel confirms that the Complainant has satisfied the threshold requirement of having relevant trademark rights. As evidenced in the Complaint, the Complainant has been using the figurative “OBSS OPEN BUSINESS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS” trademark since 2012. The Panel further notes that the Complainant may hold rights in its company name since 2005. Since then, the Complainant has used the distinctive part of its trademark, “OBSS”, as part of its company name.

The disputed domain name is confusingly similar to the Complainant’s OBSS BUSINESS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS trademark as it incorporates the distinctive part of the mark, namely “OBSS”, in its entirety.

Really? How about Open.com or software.com or solutions.com or softwaresolutions.com or opensoftware.com this panelist would seem to find each of these generic terms would be confusingly similar to the trademark of OBSS BUSINESS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS.

Ridiculous .

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  1. JohnUK says

    More and more it seems the idea of UDRP is for the Panelist to do his/her best to try and find any reason /argument to allow the Complainant to win . I dont know what the best way if to get UDRP back on track and used only in the way it was intended to be.

  3. Another Reply says

    I have just got a trademark on “Open reviews on apple microsoft dell sumsung google amazon ebay youtube” TM

    Right, I am now going to slap a UDRP on all those individual company’s that have domains that include my mark in its entirety….its out of control.

  4. Another Reply says

    ….or TM all letters from A-Z then I can after everyone saying that all domains include in one way or another my TM in its entirety. The Panel is confused I think.