YPG IP Limited v E-Promote [2007] NZDNC 208
[2007] - NZDNC - 208
Transferred ; Complainant's Rights ; Unfair Registration ; CMD ; CT Squatting
yelllowpages.co.nz / witepages.co.nz / whitpages.co.nz - Transferred
The complainant acquired intellectual property of the Yellow Pages Group Limited, including the trade mark rights to YELLOW PAGES and WHITE PAGES. The respondent's website that is linked through by the disputed domain names provides links that connect to websites sponsored by the respondent. The respondent had previously been found to have unfairly registered domain names before in New Zealand and in the UK.
The complainant argues that respondent is deliberately misspelling the words in the domain names to unfairly disrupt the complainant's business. The use of the domain name was intended to confuse, mislead, and deceive internet users. There are clear cases of typo-squatting, targeting users who accidentally made a mistake when typing in the website address.
The complainant has both registered and common law rights in YELLOW PAGES/WHITE PAGES, and the expert found the domain name to be similar to the registered trade mark. The expert inferred from the evidence that the misspelling was intentional to hopefully capture the users that mistyped the domain names. This will likely lead to confusion as users will be mistaken as to the connection between the complainant and the respondent.