Thread: Indian Car Dealers Lose Volkswagen.in

The car-manufacturer Volkswagen AG commenced arbitration proceedings to get the domain name Volkswagen.in. The respondent is Exclusive Motors Pvt Ltd, car dealers based in Delhi. It did not file a response to the complaint.

It's not clear but it sounds like the domain was parked. It displayed a variety of car-related ads, including BMW ads (a competitor of Volkswagen). A search on Google shows that the respondent is an India partner of Bentley Motors.

Volkswagen argued that the respondent did not receive consent from it to use the VOLKSWAGEN trademark.

What's ironic is that via email the respondent claimed it registered the domain to protect it from cybersquatters. However, when Volkswagen offered to reimburse the respondent for documented out-of-pocket costs (limited to a maximum of $300), the respondent did not respond.

Respondent did not answer very clearly indicating that he was expecting a reward considerably above his factual expenses.

Not only did the respondent lose the domain, but the Arbitrator ordered it to pay the following amounts:

- Rs 10,000 (approx. $215) to Volkswagen for costs and damages

- Rs 10,000 (approx. $215) to NIXI:

for cyber squatting and as cost of this proceedings for burdening the administration to full fill his dirty ulterior motives

Too bad that the respondent didn't file a response. There have been some UDRP cases that were similar where the respondent won.