HopScotch.com Hit With UDRP By Owner of HopScotch.fr

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Screen Shot 2015-10-17 at 10.29.13 AM

This is a weird one for sure.

A UDRP has been filed against the domain name Hopscotch.com

The Complainant is listed as the Hopscotch Group, which is a french PR company whose website is on the domain name hopscotchgroupe.com

The company also owns the domain Hopscotch.fr, but that domain isn’t even being forwarded to the company main website at hopscotchgroupe.com

As you can see the word “groupe” in the company’s URL is spelled the “french way” with an “e” at the end.

However according to WIPO the UDRP was filed by Hopscotch Group

The company does not own the domain HopScotchGroup.com, that domain is owned by Buydomains.com and is for sale and IMHO would be pretty surprised if it wasn’t priced in the low to mid four figures.

As of publication the Domain name TheHopScotchGroup.com is available for registration for $10 or so.

I check the USPTO and found 10 live trademarks for Hopscotch.com but none seemed to be owned by the Complainant.

As for HopScotch.com the domain is owned under privacy and going to a placeholder at Networksoultions.com.

The last time the domain was not under privacy it was owned by a Joseph William Lee who seems to have owned the domain for many years.

The domain seems to have been parked, going to the placeholder except for a short period of time, since 2004 according to Screenshots.com

As for those UDRP panels that believe, incorrectly, that renewing a domain is equivalent to a new registration, this domain was registered out to 2020 in 2010.

We will keep our eye on this one.

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. Danny Pryor says

    This is such a common term, from the child’s game to the movie with Walter Matthau, I hardly see how, without any trademark, any claim could be made beyond the boundaries of the bucolic French countryside. LOL!

  2. striker says

    If a domain squatter is holding hopscotch.com for ransom to the highest bidder, then the owner of hopscotch.fr should DEFINITELY be given the domain.

  3. JohnUK says

    Hmm,they are going to be pissed when they see that “someone” caught hopscotchgroup.com in late Sept 2015,when they have the .net from March 2015.

  4. Nick says

    People with High Value “common term” names like this really need to sue for damages when hit with a UDRP, to help detract future UDRP’s for the same name