>I think that generally they accomplish this and treat both sides fairly.
Cough, hack! I'm sorry??
Complaint excerpt:
Complainant has vigorously protected the trademark ABSOLUT against
unauthorized use by third parties. U.S. courts have recognized that the
trademark ABSOLUT is entitled to protection against infringement under U.S.
law. See Exhibit H. For example, a U.S. court recently found that the
trademark ABSOLUT is an "extraordinarily strong" trademark and "famous."
See Exhibit H (V&S Vin & Sprit Aktiebolag v. Pusher, Inc.). Further, a NAF
panel recently held that Complainant's trademark ABSOLUT is a "famous
trademark with no non-trademark significance."
Response excerpt:
In Paragraph 19 of the Complaint, Complainant alleges that ABSOLUT is a famous trademark with no non-trademark significance. Referring to any quality German dictionary proves this to be incorrect. Appendix 2 and 3 of this Response show this...
(and)
15. Upon investigation, there are currently approximately 4100 .com domains that begin with the german dictionary word "ABSOLUT" and 3500 that begin with the english dictionary word "ABSOLUT". A search at the Altavista search engine for the english word "ABSOLUTE" returns 6,739,125 pages that mention that word. The word "BEACH" returns 7,648,490 pages. The german word "ABSOLUT" returns 267,992 pages. The first ten sites for "ABSOLUT" include the Complainant's website at
http://www.absolut.com - thus discounting Complainant's claim that surfers searching for "absolut" would arrive at absolutbeach.com and get confused. Other sites in the top listings include:
a. "Absolut Sportlich" - A german sporting goods company located at
http://www.absolut-sportlich.de
b. "Groupe absolut" - A french design company located at
http://www.absolut.fr - implying that absolut is not only a german dictionary word but a french one as well
c. "Absolut System" - A portuguese media agency located at
http://www.absolut-system.pt - implying that absolut is not only a german and french dictionary word but a portuguese one as well
d. "Absolut Technologies" - A Brazilian software/hardware manufacturer located at
http://www.abs-tech.com - backing up the case for absolut having a meaning in Portuguese
16. For the Complainant to hence claim that "absolut" has no meaning outside it's TM raises concerns about its integrity. To claim to have sole rights to every domain name that includes the word "ABSOLUT" is nothing short of greed and possibly confusion of it's global status.
APPENDIX 2. Printout from an online dictionary/translator showing response to a request to translate the German word ABSOLUT into English
url =
http://www.wordreference.com/de/en/translation.asp?deen=absolut
absolut [apzolut]
1 (adj) (alle Bedeutungen) absolute;
(völlig auch) complete, total; ;
2 (adv) absolutely;
das ist ~ unmöglich, that's quite {or} absolutely impossible;
~ genommen {or} betrachtet, considered in the absolute;
ich sehe ~ nicht ein, warum..., I just don't understand why....
Absolute [apzolut]
(nt) (decl as adj: Philos) Absolute, absolute.
APPENDIX 3. Printout from an online dictionary/translator showing response to a request to translate the English word ABSOLUTE into German
http://wordreference.com/de/Translation.asp?ende=absolute
absolute [æbslut] (adj) absolut;
(power, monopoly, liberty, support also, command) uneingeschränkt;
(monarch also) unumschränkt;
(lie, idiot) ausgemacht;
the ~, das Absolute;
~ majority, absolute Mehrheit;
~ pitch, absolute Tonhöhe;
(of person) absolutes Gehör;
~ zero, absoluter Nullpunkt;
the divorce was made ~, die Scheidung wurde ausgesprochen.
-The Collins Large German Dictionary é 1999 HarperCollins Publishers
Decision excerpt (emphasis added):
The Respondent's registered domain name <absolutbeach.com> is confusingly
similar to the Complainant's U.S. federally registered trademark ABSOLUT.
Adding the word "beach" does not mitigate that confusion, particularly where
as here, the remainder of the domain name, ABSOLUT, is a famous trademark
****with no non-trademark significance****.
NAF panelists ignore any evidence that doesn't fit their desired outcome. Not having complaints and responses available for public perusal allows this to occur.
