MELBOURNE — Ruling in a cybersquatting case, an arbitrator has ordered the domain names xHamsterDeutsch.biz and xHamsterDeutsch.net transferred to the company that operates adult tube site xHamster.com.
The ruling made by panelist Neil Anthony Brown was the second made in favor for xHamster in the past two weeks. In mid-December, Brown ordered domain name xHamster9.com transferred to the famous tube site brand.
The operator of xHamsterDeutsch.biz and xHamsterDeutsch.net, whose identity was masked by its registrar, Internet Domain Service BS Corp., did not respond to the case adjudicated at the Forum, which hears cybersquatting matters.
xHamsterDeutsch.biz and xHamsterDeutsch both operated as German-language adult tube sites, complete with advertising.
In its complaint, Hammy Media Ltd. and its intellectual property division, xHamster IP holdings, said that it is the actual holder of the xHamster mark, registering it in November 2015 in Benelux.
xHamster also contended that it has used the domain name since 2007 and, thus, is protected by common law rights.
In the case, xHamster counsel, Matthew Shayefar of Boston Law Group PC, argued that the domain names are confusingly similar to the xHamster mark because they merely added the geographic designator “Deutsch” and a generic top-level domain to the full mark with each domain.
Shayefar further said that the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain names
“Respondent is not commonly known by ‘xHamster Deustch’ or either of the disputed domain names, and has been using the domain names to present themselves as a German alternative of complainant in an effort to directly compete with them,” Shayefar said.
Brown, who decides cases from Melbourne, later sided with xHamster and ruled that the operator of the two sites registered and used them in bad faith. He ordered the domains transferred to xHamster's operators.
