Lewis & Lin Defends Scentco.com Domain in UDRP

In a victory for our client, an individual domain name investor, Lewis & Lin obtained a decision by the National Arbitration Forum refusing to transfer the Scentco.com domain name to the holder of the “Scentco” registered U.S. trademark.The complainant, Scentco Inc., a distributor of scented toys and novelties, argued that our client violated the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy by registering and using the domain name in bad faith. Before a three-member panel of the NAF, Lewis & Lin argued that our client could not have registered the domain in bad faith because he had first registered it in 2001—twelve years before the complainant ever used the Scentco mark in commerce. The panel also agreed with Lewis & Lin that subsequent renewals of the domain name did not amount to a re-registration under the UDRP.The complainant had also argued that our client’s use of the domain name to resolve to a website that linked to various third party vendors—some of which competed in business with the complainant—amounted to bad faith use. However, the panel agreed with Lewis & Lin that despite some authority suggesting that a registrant is responsible for all content appearing on a website at its domain name, the respondent here did not target the complainant’s trademark or business either before or after he registered the domain. Accordingly, the panel denied the relief sought by the complainant and ruled that the Scentco.com domain name stay with our client.The case is Scentco, Inc. v. Sandfort, FA1406001565772 (N.A.F. Aug. 2, 2014) and can be accessed here.