LAS VEGAS — A WIPO arbitration panel last week dismissed a UDRP complaint brought on by the operators of XVideos.com, which argued that the domain name X-Videos.com was cybersquatting on its adult tube site brand.
While the three-judge panel that ruled in the case agreed that the domain was confusingly similar, the neutrals said that the owner of X-Videos.com — longtime domain investor and TheDomains.com Publisher Michael Berkens — had acquired the website about six years prior to any federal trademark registration for XVideos.com, one of the most highly trafficked Internet sites.
As a result, the panel found that Berkens and his company, Worldwide Media Inc. of Florida, didn't register the site in bad faith and denied XVideos.com's complaint. Berkens' X-Videos.com had been used to provide porn links to surfers.
"The respondent not only acquired and started using the name before the complainant commenced use of its mark but also continuously used the name, containing the formative 'xvideos,' in conjunction with the commonly understood meaning of that formative, i.e., to designate adult-oriented video entertainment," the panel wrote. "[T]he respondent had no knowledge of the complainant’s trademark rights as those rights were simply non-existent on March 17, 2007 – the date on which the respondent acquired and started using the name."
Two years ago, the operator of XVideos.com, WGCZ S.R.O. of Las Vegas, won a round at WIPO over the XVideos.co domain name in a cybersquatting case.
The company recently filed two more cybersquatting actions against operators of New-XVideos.com and HD-XVideos.com.