Source: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2006/d2006-0596.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 15:06:45+00:00

Document:
The Complainant is Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd, Footscray, Victoria, Australia, represented by Griffith Hack Patent and Trademark Attorneys, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Respondent is Mike Tyler, Lonely Planet Exchange.com, Wolverhampton, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The disputed domain name <lonelyplanetexchange.com> is registered with Internetters Limited.
The Complaint was filed with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (the “Center”) on May 11, 2006. On May 15, 2006, the Center transmitted by email to Internetters Limited a request for registrar verification in connection with the domain name at issue. On May 15, 2006, Internetters Limited transmitted by email to the Center its verification response confirming that the Respondent is listed as the registrant and providing the contact details for the administrative, billing, and technical contact. The Center verified that the Complaint satisfied the formal requirements of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Policy”), the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Rules”), and the WIPO Supplemental Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Supplemental Rules”).
In accordance with the Rules, paragraphs 2(a) and 4(a), the Center formally notified the Respondent of the Complaint, and the proceedings commenced on May 19, 2006. In accordance with the Rules, paragraph 5(a), the due date for Response was June�8,�2006. The Respondent did not submit any response. Accordingly, the Center notified the Respondent’s default on June�15,�2006.
The Center appointed Frederick M. Abbott as the sole panelist in this matter on June�29,�2006. The Panel finds that it was properly constituted. The Panel has submitted the Statement of Acceptance and Declaration of Impartiality and Independence, as required by the Center to ensure compliance with the Rules, paragraph 7.
This proceeding involves a refiling by Complainant against Respondent following on to rejection of its complaint in Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670. The decision in the earlier proceeding was rendered by sole panelist Warwick Smith on October 27, 2004.
Through September 2004, Complainant was unable to provide sufficient evidence that Respondent lacked rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name.
Specifically, Respondent had engaged in activities through May�13,�2002, which would have led panelist Smith to determine that Respondent lacked rights or legitimate interests up to that date. Among other grounds, Respondent had operated a commercial Internet website which “provided a forum for the trading of the travel guides and related publications of all publishers in that field. The Respondent has not explained why the trademark of one particular publisher (the Complainant) was chosen as the distinctive part of the domain name” (Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670 ) Respondent’s website prior to May 13, 2002, included some information concerning “Bargain Holidays”, which panelist Smith determined “probably included ‘budget flights’” (id.). Respondent had not included on its website a disclaimer of affiliation with Complainant. Any use by Respondent of the disputed domain name prior to notice of the dispute was found not bona fide.
From at least August 1, 2003, changes were made to Respondent’s website which included elimination of disclaimers (which had been added following Respondent’s acceptance of Complainant’s conditional offer) and a change of focus primarily aimed at providing information on “budget flights for travelers, and advice relating to accommodation in various parts of the world” (Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670).
“The Panel wishes to make it clear in reaching that conclusion, that it is not to be taken as endorsing the Respondent’s actions in any way. The Panel has no doubt that the Respondent registered the domain name in bad faith, and it is perhaps unfortunate for the Complainant that its efforts to resolve the matter amicably with the Respondent have helped to produce the very complications which have rendered the dispute unsuitable for resolution in an administrative proceeding such as this. However the Respondent has at least acknowledged in this proceeding that he was bound by the terms set out in the May 13, 2002, letter. That letter conferred on the Complainant a clear right to take action to recover the domain name if there was any material change in the nature of the Respondent’s website, and it remains open to the Complainant to seek to enforce that right in an appropriate Court if it wishes to do so.” (Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670).
Complaint, Annex 33. By letter of March 29, 2006, Complainant’s counsel sent a further letter requesting Respondent to allow registration of the disputed domain name to lapse (id.).
(2) Printouts of Respondent’s website identified by the disputed domain name of April 6, 2004 (id., Annex 34), May 16, 2004 (id., Annex 35) and March 9, 2006 (id. Annex 36). Complainant submits these printouts as evidence that Respondent continues to use the disputed domain name in a way which is intended to confuse Internet users as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation or endorsement by Complainant of Respondent’s website. Complainant notes that Respondent includes a disclaimer of affiliation on these more recent versions of its website, but states that they may be easily overlooked due to their lack of prominence.
The Registration Agreement in effect between Respondent and Internetters Limited subjects Respondent to dispute settlement under the Policy. The Policy requires that domain name registrants submit to a mandatory Administrative Proceeding conducted by an approved dispute resolution service provider, of which the Center is one, regarding allegations of abusive domain name registration and use (Policy,�paragraph�4(a)).
Complainant has reiterated its pleading in Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd. v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670.
Complainant argues that by its letter of April 6, 2005, (and follow-up of March�29,�2006), it has clearly and formally terminated any permission it may have given to Respondent to use the disputed domain name. Thus, to the extent it may have been unclear to the panelist in Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670 whether permission to use the disputed domain name had terminated prior to commencement of that proceeding, it is now clear that any such permission has been terminated.
Complainant requests the Panel to find that the disputed domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which it has rights, that Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name and that Respondent registered and used the disputed domain name in bad faith.
This proceeding involves a refiling by Complainant against Respondent with respect to the domain name disputed in Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd. v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670.
A number of panel decisions under the Policy have considered the circumstances in which complaints might be refiled, see, e.g., Grove Broadcasting Co. Ltd. v. Telesystems Communications Limited, WIPO Case No. D2000-0703; Creo Products Inc. v. Website In Development, WIPO Case No. D2000-1490; Maruti Udyog Ltd .v. maruti.com; WIPO Case No. D2003-0073, and; AB Svenska Spel v. Andrey Zacharov, WIPO Case No. D2003-0527.
In light of the extensive consideration given by earlier panels to the circumstances in which it may (or may not) be appropriate to accept refiled complaints under the Policy, this Panel does not consider it necessary to revisit the legal backdrop against which the question here is to be considered. Suffice it for present purposes to say that in this case involving (1) the same complainant and (2) the same respondent (3) with respect to the identical domain name as to which a previous panel decision under the Policy has been rendered, in order for the cause of action to be considered, Complainant must be presenting facts (1) that raise the possibility of a serious defect with respect to the prior proceeding or (2) present some materially changed facts occurring subsequent to that proceeding which reasonably might alter the analysis of the Panel and thereby alter the outcome of the proceeding.
Complainant does not herein allege a serious defect in the manner in which the decision in Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670, was reached. Complainant believes that the prior decision was incorrect because it believes it had terminated any authorization it may have given to Respondent to use the disputed domain name before it initiated its complaint (in that earlier proceeding). But, Complainant is not literally appealing that decision. Instead, Complainant has taken steps to address the factual circumstance which it asserts the panel relied on in that earlier proceeding in rejecting its complaint.
Complainant dispatched a subsequent letter (and follow up) to Respondent stating in plain terms that, whatever may or may not have transpired prior to filing the earlier complaint, it was unequivocally terminating any authorization to use the disputed domain name that it may have previously given.
Complainant’s course of action and asserted grounds for refiling are predicated on an incomplete reading of the decision in Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670. The panel in the earlier proceeding did not reject the complaint because Complainant failed to send a clear communication to Respondent. The panel rejected the complaint because it was unclear whether Complainant had the right under the terms of the authorization it had given to terminate it. Complainant had not insisted on strict compliance with respect to a disclaimer, and the panel was in any case uncertain whether noncompliance with this condition would constitute a sufficient breach to justify termination. More important (because the issue of sufficiency of the breach would not arise), the panel could not determine whether the changes Respondent had made to its website constituted a material change in the nature of its website such as would justify termination as a matter of law.
Complainant has not alleged new facts that might alter the uncertain situation which led the panelist in Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670 to decide that Complainant failed to demonstrate Respondent’s lack of rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name. There is a disclaimer on Respondent’s website. There has not been a material change in the nature of Respondent’s website subsequent to the earlier decision. The uncertain situation is not resolved by a subsequent letter from Complainant saying that it formally and unequivocally terminates any rights Respondent may have had. The question was not (and is not) whether Complainant wanted to terminate Respondent’s rights or legitimate interests (such as they might have been), but whether it was justified to do so. The panel in Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670 said this was a matter better determined by an appropriate court.
This is the type of refiling which the panelist in Creo Products Inc. referred to as a “Complaint based on subsequent acts that are either a repetition of or substantially the same as the acts on which the previous complaint was based.” While in the circumstances of this case it is appropriate for the refiling issue to have been referred to a panel, this type of refiling does not merit adjudication as a new case.
This Panel denies Complainant’s request for a finding that Respondent has engaged in abusive domain name registration and use on grounds that this matter has previously been adjudicated between the same parties under the Policy.
This Panel, just as panelist Smith in Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd v. Mike Tyler, WIPO Case No. D2004-0670, is sympathetic to the fact that Complainant’s problems with Respondent arise almost wholly from Complainant’s initial willingness to reach an amicable result with Respondent. While this case may provide an object lesson for trademark holders facing similar circumstances in the future, the lesson does not serve to redress Complainant’s problem here. As earlier decided by panelist Smith, the issues are more appropriately addressed by the courts.
1 This effectively constitutes the “law of the case”. In so far as it is necessary to consider the matter, the Panel will reference the continued validity of those determinations through the date of the commencement of this proceeding.

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