NZ company victor in domain dispute

New Zealand polling company DigiPoll has gained control of the domain name digipoll.com, more than three years after it was registered by someone else in the US.

DigiPoll legal administrator Stephen Mascarenhas said the uniform dispute resolution policy of the non-profit Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers provided the opportunity to get the name through arbitration.

"We've got so much business now that comes in from overseas, we thought it essential that we have a global presence, that's why we really required this dotcom name."

The name had been registered in 2001 by Californian Raj Kumar, who later attempted to sell it to DigiPoll for US$65,000 ($88,500).

Mascarenhas said Kumar dropped his price to about US$6000 before arbitration took place, by which time DigiPoll was prepared to pay only US$1500, the cost of bringing its case.

He said Kumar agreed to take US$1500, but too late, as the complaint had already been filed.

DigiPoll had to prove three key elements to win: that the disputed domain name was "identical or confusingly similar to a trade mark"; Kumar had no legitimate interest in using the name; and the registration by Kumar had been in "bad faith".

In his submission, Kumar said he intended to use the name for his own polling business and denied offering to sell it to DigiPoll.

Arbitration found that Kumar did attempt to sell the name for US$65,000, although there was dispute over who initiated the sale discussions.

That action, the arbitration found, suggested sale for profit was "probably the true motivation for registration".

Mascarenhas said: "If this person was using the domain name for his own business then we would have no claim on it."

Kumar, however, argued that DigiPoll was itself engaged in "typosquatting", having registered domain names similar to those of a competitor, Digivote.

Mascarenhas confirmed the company had registered a number of names, to reach customers browsing the internet. The various sites would redirect users to the DigiPoll.co.nz site.

One name, digi-vote.com, is almost identical to polling competitor Digivote.

Mascarenhas said that name was registered as a bargaining chip in case DigiPoll found itself in a domain name dispute with Digivote.

But he said DigiPoll would have no hesitation in giving up any registered name that conflicted with another company.

"If tomorrow they [Digivote] did have a complaint and said, 'Look, we require this for our purposes', we would have no hesitation in giving it up.

"We've gone through the same thing, so obviously we understand it."