Registrar Donuts has won the fight for a new gTLD .coach. This happened after the only competing application was withdrawn by a chain of clothing and accessories stores that owns trademark Coach and coach.com website. Ownership of the trademark with the same name usually was considered a serious argument in favor of the owner in a fight for domain, however, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Coach complaint made a different decision.
WIPO jury felt that on its own the word “coach” is a noun of common usage and the company should have been aware of possible problems when it registered trademark Coach. On these grounds the complaint was dismissed and soon after Coach withdrew its application for the new domain. However, it is quite likely that not only WIPO’s verdict but also financial offers of Donuts helped make a decision.
