Another trial in the US National Arbitration Forum ended with an absolutely incredible outcome. August Image LLC filed a complaint under the UDRP Uniform Domain Dispute Resolution Policy. The subject of the complaint was the domain name Augustlmage.com. It differs from the domain of the company's official website - Augustimage.com - by a single letter, which is also extremely similar in spelling: the registrant replaced i with l.
This technique itself is almost 100% indicative of cybersquatting. But even this is not enough: letters were sent from Augustlmage.com to clients of August Image LLC, and therefore there is evidence of the use of the domain name to the detriment of the interests of the plaintiff. In a word, there could be no doubt about victory.
However, the complaint was ultimately dismissed. The reason was the grossest mistake August Image LLC made when submitting documents. According to Domain Name Wire, the complaint stated that August Image LLC owns the rights to the AUGUST trademark. But an audit by Arbitration Forum lawyers determined that the brand belongs to another company, August Worldwide, Inc. The arbitration requested additional confirmation from the plaintiff that the trademark belongs to him. And received a notification in response that the mention of the trademark was included in the complaint ... by mistake.
Panelist Charles Kuechenmeister was probably so annoyed by this circumstance that he preferred not to go into further details of the situation. Of course, the defendant violated the "rules of the game", but in the case of the consideration of the case, the plaintiff himself was the first to violate them - for which he was punished.
