The arbitrators of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) issued a remarkable decision as they considered a complaint by the Faroe Islands Tourism Board, the Domain Name Wire has reported. The complaint was filed in the framework of the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP). The Tourism Board is the domain registrant of VisitFaroeIslands.com, a site promoting tourism in the Faroes. Naturally, the site features idyllic pictures of northern landscapes and the beautiful nature and hospitality of the islands.
This idyllic picture has been ruined by the Save the Whales environmental protection group, fighting predatory whaling. The group registered VisitTHEFaroeIslands.com domain, which only slightly differs from the tourism website’s address (the article “the”). The information on the site tells the story of how hundreds of pilot whales are brutally killed each year on the Faroes.
The information is accompanied by spine-chilling pictures of pilot whales forced into shallow waters, where they are slaughtered by hooks and spears. The photos have no less chilling names attached to them like "welcome to hell" or "spend your holidays knee-deep in blood."
Obviously, the Tourism Board could not accept such “promotion” and filed a complaint with WIPO. However, WIPO refused to transfer rights to the VisitTHEFaroeIslands.com to the board on the grounds that the environmentalist group is not using the trademark to profit or mislead users. As a result, VisitTHEFaroeIslands.com continues to operate.
Environmentalists all over the world have been demanding for years to ban the slaughter of pilot whales in the Faroe Islands. However, the Danish government, which owns the islands, has refused to accommodate these demands due to the fact that whaling is an important tradition in the Faroe Islands. At least the environmentalists have succeeded in the domain space.
