Panel disagree over fate of 'cooperator.ca'

Marc Shewchun & Glen Perinot

Print Version

A panel of the British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Centre has ordered the transfer of the domain name ‘cooperator.ca’ to insurance company Cooperators Group Ltd.

The panel had no trouble finding in favour of Cooperators on the three grounds required to prove the complaint under the Canadian Internet Registration AuthorityDomain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, namely that:

• the domain name was confusingly similar to Cooperators' trademark;

• the registration of the domain name was made in bad faith; and

• the registrant, Artbravo Inc, had no legitimate interest in the domain name.

Key to each of these findings was evidence submitted by Cooperators that the registrant had used the domain name to provide links to insurance services and that the registrant had a pattern of registering domain names that correspond to the trademarks of third parties.

In an interesting dissent on the appropriate remedy, panellist David Allesbrook felt that cancellation of the registration was more appropriate than transfer of the registration to Cooperators. Allesbrook felt that the domain name was a generic term capable of being used innocently by a third party and that there was a public interest in having as large a pool as possible of available trademarks and domain names.