Novartis claims victory in UDRP dispute

Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has recovered a domain name that is confusingly similar to its trademark.

The domain, novartis.online, was registered in January 2016, 20 years after Novartis registered its ‘Novartis’ trademark in the US.

It led Novartis to file a complaint under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy with the US-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on March 21.

Novartis argued that the respondent, Hoang Le, had used its mark in connection with the company, that the domain is confusingly similar to its mark, and that the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in it and is using the domain in bad faith.

The respondent did not reply to the complaint.

In a decision dated May 11, but published on May 19, WIPO panellist George Souter handed Novartis the domain name.

He said it was confusingly similar to Novartis’s trademark as the domain “incorporates the complainant's trademark in its entirety” with the addition of “.online”.

Further, he said that a prima facie case had been made and that the respondent had no rights or legitimate interests in the domain.

He also said that the domain is being used in bad faith and it poses “a real threat” to the interests of Novartis’s trademark.

The decision is available  here.

This was first published on  Trademarks and Brands Online.