The U.S. firm Chief Architect has won a domain dispute that it filed against another company, CAD Australia.
Chief Architect’s dispute revolved around CAD Australia’s use of the chiefarchitect.com.au domain name.
The firm claimed that CAD Australia continued to use the domain name after the expiration of a reseller agreement between the two companies.
WIPO’s Arbitration and Mediation Center ruled in favor of Chief Architect, stating that Sydney-based CAD Australia had no right to use the disputed domain name after the agreement expired.
“Accordingly, this Panel finds, pursuant to paragraph 4(b)(iv) of the Policy, that the Respondent has used the disputed domain name in bad faith,” the WIPO judgment said.
Chief Architect first registered its company trademark in Australia in 1999.
Earlier this month, WIPO noted that trademark protection applications rose by 12.8% last year. The organization’s director-general, Francis Gurry, said the increase followed a lull in trademark filings in 2009.