Blundstone wins disputed domain name

Griffith Hack recently acted for Blundstone Pty Ltd (“Blundstone”) in a domain name dispute with Carlton Hardware.  Blundstone is Australia’s largest manufacturer of heavy-duty work and protective safety footwear.  The BLUNDSTONE brand is synonymous with quality footwear and Blundstone currently exports its footwear to more than 20 countries.

Carlton Hardware, a hardware store located in a suburb of Melbourne, had registered the domain name blundstoneboots.com and pointed that domain name to a website which offered for sale various work wear, including Blundstone’s footwear.

Blundstone began to receive service complaints from consumers who had placed orders for footwear with Carton Hardware.  On behalf of Blundstone, Griffith Hack filed a Complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organisation Arbitration and Mediation Center (“WIPO”) requesting that the domain name be transferred to Blundstone. 

After considering Blundstone’s evidence, the WIPO-appointed Panellist found that the domain name blundstoneboots.com was confusingly similar to the BLUNDSTONE trade marks in which Blundstone has rights.

The Panellist then went on to find that Carlton Hardware had been using the domain name blundstoneboots.com to attract customers seeking to purchase Blundstone’s footwear to its website and concluded that Carlton Hardware had no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name blundstoneboots.com. 

Finally, the Panellist agreed with Blundstone’s contention that Carlton Hardware had registered and used the domain name blundstoneboots.com in bad faith.  The Panellist ordered the Registrar, Network Solutions, to transfer the domain name to Blundstone.

Chris Sgourakis of Griffith Hack responded to the Panellist’s decision by stating that “this is yet another example of how trade mark owners can use the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy to take speedy and effective action against registrants that misappropriate trade mark owner’s rights or cause confusion amongst consumers”.

For more information, please contact:
Chris Sgourakis – chris.sgourakis@griffithhack.com.au
Jürgen Bebber – jurgen.bebber@griffithhack.com.au

View Full News Archive

top