Hottie.in (INDRP) v Hottie.com (UDRP)

In case you missed out attending NamesCon – CloudFest 2018 at Mumbai. Here is a good example as to how the domain dispute matters that are denied under UDRP are allowed under INDRP.

The classic example is that of generic word ‘HOTTIE’, as the Complainant Company Easton Corp Pty Ltd, Australia firstly filed for UDRP over Hottie.com in October 2016 but the Complaint was denied in November 2016 as Respondent was represented by one of the said panelist Mr. Zak Muscovitch. Later, the same complainant filed a INDRP over Hottie.in, wherein the Respondent Mr Dean Chandler tried to defend himself and also referred to the lost case of HOTTIE.com, to which the Complainant replied “The Chinese company that owns hottie.com hired a very well known Canadian attorney who specials in UDRP cases…” otherwise they has no proper explanation.

Though the facts in both the matters were almost similar and the trademark of Complainant company was never known outside Australia. Therefore, neither the .COM nor .IN could have been ordered to be transferred but it clearly was an embarassment for the INDRP procedure, as clearly ‘HOTTIE’ is a dictionary word and not a strong trademark, in which anyone could prove rights. Therefore, the Complaint was rightly denied under UDRP.