WIPO Allows Consolidated Complaint

[Ceres]

Interesting article that discusses WIPO, Domain names and the football world.

A number of England's top football clubs have combined in order to win a ground-breaking domain name dispute at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

The clubs were complaining over various domain names that were linked to websites selling tickets to their football matches for example official-liverpool-tickets.com.

The 5 disputed domains are:

- official-fulham-tickets.com
- official-liverpool-tickets.com
- official-manchester-tickets.com
- official-tottenham-tickets.com
- official-westham-tickets.com

...consolidation of multiple complaints in a single complaint should be permitted if the complainants:

(i) have a common grievance against the respondent; and

(ii) it would be equitable and procedurally efficient to permit the consolidation of complaints,"

As the football clubs were able to satisfy the above test, the WIPO panel allowed them to consolidate the complaint against the respondent.

Here's the WIPO decision.