Thread: INDRP: Axa.in - When not to park a domain

AXA SA, a well-known French company that does business worldwide in the areas of insurance and finance, won the domain Axa.in in the latest INDRP case. AXA owns many trademarks for "AXA" worldwide, including India.

According to the decision, the respondent registered the domain Axa.in after AXA had acquired their trademark in India.

The respondent filed no response in this case.

In my opinion, here's what ruined the respondent's case:

The website was parked and had links in the areas of insurance and finance. Also, some of these links led to the websites of AXA's competitors.

I think the respondent would have been safer if it had developed this LLL domain into a full website, and showed a legitimate use for the term Axa, which does not touch the areas of insurance and finance.

What do you think of the decision?

Well, decision seems fair to me. as the respondent didn't contest.

any domain that is parked has a good chance of going to complaint becuase IN registry would feel you are wasting the domain by parking it.
that's the general sense of jury in INDRP, I am observing this from past few cases.


So better develop it into a minisite. www.Noomle.com is a Good Option

Originally Posted by Gaurish

So better develop it into a minisite. www.Noomle.com is a Good Option

Gaurish, please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Noomle is a parking company? Wouldn't you simply be trading a traditional parking service for the more modern minisite parking service that Noomle offers? From the Noomle website:

With Noomle , you will park Unlimited domain names and get unlimited Noomle websites add your Google Adsense or yahoo publisher network (YPN), adbrite and other Affiliate programs and generate Great revenue 100% yours , no share…

I think a domain owner, who is in a similar situation as the respondent in the Axa.in case, will need to make a much bigger effort to show legitimate use. I don't think a Noomle minisite will achieve this. What do other people think?

Why would anyone try to reg a domain name of an established company--a company that is established in your own country (there was a very large Axa building in my residential neighborhood in Bangalore, so there must be other Axa building in India). It seems awful cheeky to me to register Axa or the name of any similar international company. I think the respondent was asking for it. The respondent should be very glad he/she wasn't fined Axa's lawyer fees.

I agree with newyourdude. I have made a similar mistake of registering a domain name purely without realising its a trademark(you all know which one ;-), trust me I had no intention of being "cheeky" to register a TM domain name. Sometimes when you search for a doamin you get into the excitement (and trapped) of "domain availability" that you just land up buying it, until somebody points that to you "hey that's a trademark" - and you are f.....! eh :-(
I am just waiting for the domain to expire or maybe who knows before it expires the TM owner comes to me and at least give me my domain purchase price...

Most new .in domains don't get much traffic, so parking is not worthwhile.

@hosting, If I innocently regged a domain name that turns out to be wanted by a big company, I would ask for more than just reg fee. After all, the process of pulling the regged domain out of my hands requires the company to submit forms to some official body. I would say, "OK, you're right, I regged this site in all innocence, but now I see it should be yours. If you pay me $xxx, I'll turn it over to you right away. If you want to grab this name from me after going to the registration agency or the court, you will probably win but it will cost you lawyer's fees. Why not pay me a small amount, instead of paying lawyers?"

Originally Posted by newyorkdude

@hosting, If I innocently regged a domain name that turns out to be wanted by a big company, I would ask for more than just reg fee. After all, the process of pulling the regged domain out of my hands requires the company to submit forms to some official body. I would say, "OK, you're right, I regged this site in all innocence, but now I see it should be yours. If you pay me $xxx, I'll turn it over to you right away. If you want to grab this name from me after going to the registration agency or the court, you will probably win but it will cost you lawyer's fees. Why not pay me a small amount, instead of paying lawyers?"

hmm... your response sometimes really gets me thinking I am sure others think that too
Thanks for your reponse i totally agree with you but I will think about this whether or not should i keep this domain, or never know i will keep this for ever - in a hope to see some good money come in ;-)

Renew or not renew? I don't know. My guess is that it's a matter of each individual case. Which, in turn, means it's a matter of the size of your budget. Hosting, your budget is huge, so it shouldn't be a problem, right?

Originally Posted by newyorkdude

Renew or not renew? I don't know. My guess is that it's a matter of each individual case. Which, in turn, means it's a matter of the size of your budget. Hosting, your budget is huge, so it shouldn't be a problem, right?

LOL.. yeah right