Frank Schilling, a founder and CEO of Uniregistry and also one of the most influential people in the domain business, has successfully defended his rights for the domain ClearCare.com in the National Arbitration Forum. A complaint against him was filed by Novartis – pharmaceutical giant with a 200 billion dollars turnover. However, all resources and capabilities of Novartis were not enough.
One of the divisions of Novartis offers contact lens cleaning and storage solutions under the name ClearCare. So, the company intended to get a hold of ClearCare.com on this basis. However, Schilling’s attorney John Berryhill managed to prove that there was no malicious intend against Novartis in Frank Schilling’s actions, nor any infringement of company’s business interests. Schilling registered this domain after expiration date of the previous operator’s registration, which is absolutely legal. Since that time the domain is parked with ad links related to provision of medical services, but has nothing to do with contact lenses.
The jury of the National Arbitration Forum recognized the validity of these arguments. They also took into account that domain ClearCare.com was registered by Frank Schilling 9 years ago and all this time Novartis for some reason didn't see it as a threat to its business or didn't consider it necessary to report. The jury decided to reject Novartis complaint.
