The fact of soliciting the sale and placing the domain name on the Internet for sale has been regarded in a number of WIPO cases as being evidence of abuse and bad faith. The Internet is a worldwide institution and persons accessing any website can come from any country. It must be assumed that some hits on the Respondent s website could come from persons living in those many countries where there is a registered Wal-Mart mark. These persons could easily have had dealings with the Complainant s stores or have used the Complainant s websites for on-line shopping. They could easily conclude that the domain site had something to do with the Complainant s United States, German and United Kingdom operations.
Geographical destinations can be irrelevant to users of the Internet.
The Panel accordingly determines that the Respondent has registered and used the Complainant s mark in bad faith. Since the Respondent appears to be domiciled in Switzerland, any legal action would have to be taken against him in that country. The Panel has not had cited to it decisions of Superior Courts in Switzerland. Principles of law set out in decisions of Courts in the United States and the United Kingdom in similar cases could easily be of assistance to Swiss courts. The law protecting intellectual property, whilst admitting of local differences, is often quite similar, given the various international treaties on intellectual property.