GENEVA — JuicyAds has reported that the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in a unanimous decision last week, ruled in its favor regarding a domain squatting case.
The disputed domain name "juicyads.online" was registered in May 2020 by the defendant, identified as Manas Biswal (aka Profitz).
According to a JuicyAds rep, Biswal immediately contacted the advertising network and made an unsolicited offer for the company to purchase the domain which contained the company's internationally registered trademark.
JuicyAds claims they provided Biswal with several opportunities to transfer the domain to them and when Biswal failed to do so, Silverstein Legal filed suit with WIPO to seize the domain.
A Dubious 'Juice Cart' Operation
In response to the filing, a JuicyAds rep said, “the defendant repeatedly (and blatantly in view of WIPO arbitrators) continued to solicit sale of the domain to JuicyAds for amounts ranging from $750 to $3,000 while simultaneously claiming to be developing ‘an online juice drink cart store where users can order juice drinks online.’ However, Biswal failed to provide evidence of such an undertaking.”
The WIPO panel stated that it "seriously” doubted that Biswal would independently choose the term JUICYADS for an online juice drink store."
"While the Trade Mark is made up of two common words or terms, JUICYADS as a whole has no dictionary meaning and is not an obvious choice for an online juice store as the Respondent asserts,” the panel wrote. “Notably, the 'ads' portion does not fit that narrative."
"The Panel finds that the Respondent's intent in registering the Disputed Domain Name was to profit from or otherwise exploit the Complainant's Trade Mark" WIPO stated in its written decision, and subsequently ordered the domain transferred to JuicyAds.
Silverstein Speaks
Attorney Corey D. Silverstein, of Silverstein Legal, added that “JuicyAds will not allow anyone to abuse its intellectual property and maintains its commitment to aggressively pursuing those who seem to think that they can hide in foreign jurisdictions.”
“The audacity of the respondent in this case was a monumental error of judgment on his part and it was erroneous for him to believe that he would somehow be immune from being pursued in India," Silverstein continued. “The entire JuicyAds teams has spent a small fortune developing and protecting its intellectual property rights throughout the world, and I was very pleased to assist my client in getting this decision.”
In response to the decision by WIPO, Biswal allegedly sent JuicyAds yet another unsolicited offer to purchase the domain for $1,500 despite the fact the domain had already been ordered to be transferred to the company within 10 days.
The company stated that it intends to make additional legal filings to recoup its full costs and expenses related to the WIPO litigation.