Sun International successful with suncityvacation.co.za domain name dispute.
The SAIIPL has released the Adjudicator's Decision in the suncityvacation.co.za domain name Dispute. Sun International (South Africa) Limited has successfully claimed the transfer of the domain name following the Decision by Senior SAIIPL Adjudicator, Adv. Gavin Morley SC.
Extracts from the Decision include:
"In spite of its submissions to the contrary, in the judgment of the Adjudicator, the Registrant has not made generic or descriptive use of . The use that is being made is to denote the origin of the services that the Registrant is offering i.e. trade mark use of the Domain Name"
"This adjudication does not mean that the Registrant cannot make any use of SUN CITY in a web-site under its own trade name in which it continues to promote bookings for the resort. It is not for the Adjudicator to say what would constitute unobjectionable use of the SUN CITY marks in a web-site. That is a matter for the Registrant and its advisors."
"In the judgment of the Adjudicator, this did not give rise to an entitlement on the part of the Registrant to use the Complainant’s SUN CITY trade marks in order to register a Domain Name. As has already been indicated, the use, despite the protestations of the Registrant to the contrary, was not generic or descriptive use but rather trade mark use to denote the origin of its services and to take advantage of the goodwill and reputation attaching to the SUN CITY name and trade marks"
"Consequently, the Adjudicator finds that the disputed Domain Name, in the hands of the Registrant is an abusive registration as the disputed Domain Name has been registered (and subsequently used) in such a way that leads people or businesses to believe that the disputed Domain Name is registered to, operated or authorised by, or otherwise connected with the complainant."
The full Decision (ZA2008-0023) can be found on the domain name Decisions page.
2008-11-11
