Source: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2012-1668
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 00:41:11+00:00

Document:
Complainant is Tarheel Take-Out, LLC of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America (“U.S.”), represented internally.
Respondent is Versimedia, Inc. of Wilton, Connecticut, U.S., represented by William F. Herbert, U.S.
The disputed domain name <takeout.com> is registered with GoDaddy.com, LLC. (the “Registrar”).
The Complaint was filed with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (the “Center”) on August 21, 2012. On August 21, 2012, the Center transmitted by email to the Registrar a request for registrar verification in connection with the disputed domain name. On August 22, 2012, the Registrar transmitted by email to the Center its verification response confirming that Respondent is listed as the registrant and providing the contact details for the disputed domain name.
In accordance with the Rules, paragraphs 2(a) and 4(a), the Center formally notified Respondent of the Complaint, and the proceedings commenced August 24, 2012. In accordance with the Rules, paragraph 5(a), the due date for Response September 13, 2012. The Response was filed with the Center September 12, 2012.
On September 13, 2012, Complainant requested via an email to the Center that its Complaint be withdrawn with prejudice. On September 14, 2012, the Center communicated Complainant’s request to withdraw to Respondent via an email and asked for comments on or before September 17, 2012. On the same day, Respondent asked that the Center deny Complainant’s request to withdraw.
The Center appointed Michael A. Albert, Christopher S. Gibson and Frederick M. Abbott as panelists in this matter on October 5, 2012. The Panel finds that it was properly constituted. Each member of 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.
Complainant asserts that it has used TARHEELTAKEOUT.COM in connection with its software for restaurant delivery services since November of 1999 in North Carolina. A review of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine indicates that TARHEEL TAKE-OUT EXPRESS was used at <tarheeltakeout.com> in November of 1999.
The disputed domain name was registered on April 22, 1999.
In April of 2004, Respondent obtained <takeout.com>.
On March 4, 2010, Complainant began using TAKEOUT.COM in connection with its online ordering services in the field of restaurant takeout and delivery. On March 9, 2010, Complainant filed trademark application Serial No. 77/954,702 for TAKEOUT.COM for “[o]n-line ordering services in the field of restaurant take-out and delivery, in Class 35,” “food delivery, in Class 39,” and “[s]oftware as a services (SAAS) services, namely, hosting software for use by others for use in the RDS (Restaurant Delivery Service) industry as an on-line point-of-sale, dispatching, and reporting system, in Class 42.” This application was signed by Wesley S. Garrison (“Garrison”), a managing member of Complainant.
On June 16, 2010, an Office Action issued to Garrison against the application for TAKEOUT.COM, which refused the mark as merely descriptive and contained an advisory that the mark was “possibly generic.” This Office Action also refused the disclaimer of TAKEOUT due to the unitary nature of the mark.
On December 16, 2010, an attorney with offices in North Carolina filed a Response to this Office Action on behalf of Complainant deleting the services in Classes 35 and 39 and amending the Class 42 services to “[s]oftware as a service (SAAS) services, namely, hosting software for use by others as an on-line point-of-sale, dispatching, management, and reporting system.” On February 2, 2011, the Examining Attorney issued a second Office Action maintaining the descriptiveness refusal and rejecting the new identification.
On February 28, 2011, Complainant’s application was amended to the Supplemental Register and the identification was amended to “[s]oftware as a service (SAAS) services, namely, hosting software for use by others for use in the RDS (Restaurant Delivery Service) industry as an on-line point-of-sale, dispatching, and reporting system” by way of an Examiner’s Amendment. On April 12, 2012, Complainant obtained Registration No. 3,946,428 for TAKEOUT.COM on the Supplemental Register.
(d) Respondent owns at least 158 domain names.
(h) Complainant cannot establish any trademark rights in the generic or merely descriptive term ”Takeout”.
(f) Respondent’s lack of involvement in any prior UDRP proceedings.
(h) Complainant stated in its trademark application that its first use of TAKEOUT.COM was March 4, 2010, which contradicts its Complaint in this matter.
Complainant bears the burden of proof in a Policy proceeding. All elements set out in paragraph 4(a) of the Policy must be proven. Since paragraph 4(a)(i) requires Complainant to prove that the disputed domain name “is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights,” and such rights have not been proven here, the Panel need not address any issues under paragraphs 4(a)(ii) or 4(a)(iii) of the Policy.
It is well-settled that a Supplemental Registration in the U.S. is not sufficient in itself to establish that a Complainant has rights to a mark for the purposes of the Policy. See Advance News Service Inc. v. Vertical Axis, Inc. / Religionnewsservice.com, WIPO Case No. D2008-1475 (holding that a Supplemental Registration for RELIGION NEWS SERVICE did not provide sufficient rights under the Policy to confer standing); PC Mall, Inc. v. Pygmy Computer Systems, Inc., WIPO Case No. D2004-0437 (holding that a Supplemental Registration for MOBILE MALL did not provide sufficient rights under the Policy to confer standing); Rodale, Inc. v. Cambridge, WIPO Case No. DBIZ2002-00153 (holding that a Supplemental Registration for SCUBADIVING.COM did not provide sufficient rights under the Policy to confer standing); see also WIPO Overview of WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions, Second Edition (“WIPO Overview 2.0”) section 1.1.
In this case, the website provided by Complainant as evidence of use of TAKEOUT.COM in November of 1999, <tarheeltakeout.com>, only shows use of TARHEEL TAKE-OUT EXPRESS as a trademark. Complainant itself notes in the Complaint that this mark was used only in North Carolina. Complainant has not shown that this use of <tarheeltakeout.com> and TARHEEL TAKE-OUT EXPRESS conferred any trademark rights for the merely descriptive TAKEOUT.COM on Complainant.
Garrison, who submitted the Complaint on behalf of Tarheel Take-Out, LLC as well as the initial trademark application for TAKEOUT.COM, conceded this lack of rights by disclaiming TAKEOUT in the application. The prosecution history for the application indicates that Garrison received the initial Office Action, which included a refusal of the mark on the grounds that it was merely descriptive of the identified services as well as an advisory that the mark was likely generic. This application also states that the first use of TAKEOUT.COM occurred in 2010, roughly eleven years after the first use claimed in this Complaint. The Panel notes that the application relied on by Complainant ultimately registered on the Supplemental Register. However, Respondent had obtained the disputed domain name <takeout.com> approximately six years prior to the filing date of Complainant’s application for TAKEOUT.COM.
Finally, the Panel notes that there is substantial third party use of TAKEOUT.COM as well as the generic or commonly descriptive phrase “takeout.” “Takeout” is a term commonly used to describe food or a meal to be consumed away from its place of preparation. See, e.g., http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/takeout. It is sufficiently commonly used in that sense that the term also functions as a standalone noun, as in “I will go pick up some takeout”. The Panel finds that Complainant has no rights in TAKEOUT.COM as a service mark that could serve as the basis for this Complaint under the Policy.
Paragraph 15(e) of the Rules provides that, if “after considering the submissions the panel finds that the complaint was brought in bad faith, for example in an attempt at [RDNH] or was brought primarily to harass the domain-name holder, the panel shall declare in its decision that the complaint was brought in bad faith and constitutes an abuse of the administrative proceeding.” RDNH is defined under the Rules as “using the UDRP in bad faith to attempt to deprive a registered domain-name holder of a domain name.” See WIPO Overview 2.0, section 4.17. The respondent generally bears the burden of demonstrating that a complainant brought a complaint in bad faith. Id. “WIPO panels have declined to find [RDNH] in circumstances including where: [. . .] the complainant’s argument under a required element of the UDRP fails, but not by such an obvious margin that the complainant must have appreciated that this would be the case at the time of filing the complaint.” Id.
“[A] finding of [RDNH] is warranted if the Complainant knew or should have known at the time it filed the Complaint that it could not prove one of the essential elements required by the Policy. [. . .] [S]uch a finding is particularly appropriate where the Respondent’s registration of the domain name predates the very creation of the Complainant’s trademark.” carsales.com.au Limited v. Alton L. Flanders, WIPO Case No. D2004-0047 citing Futureworld Consultancy (Pty) Limited v. Online advice, WIPO Case No. D2003-0297. Ordinarily if the face of the complaint itself demonstrates a settled reason why the complaint must be denied, a panel may make a finding of RDNH. See Liquid Nutrition Inc. v. liquidnutrition.com/Vertical Axis Inc., WIPO Case No. D2007-1598 (finding RDNH where the Claimant alleged its first use of the mark was four years after the domain name had been registered). However, a finding of RDNH is always within the panel’s discretion. See Rudy Rojas v. Gary Davis, WIPO Case No. D2004-1081 (April 18, 2005) (finding that the facts justified RDNH but panel determined “to leave the parties as it found them” because both parties made misrepresentations to the panel).
Finally, “[i]t is no excuse that a party or its representative is unfamiliar with clear Policy precedent, much less the clear language of the Policy and the Rules themselves.” Pick Enterprises, Inc. v. Domains by Proxy, LLC, DomainsByProxy.com / Woman to Woman Healthcare / Just Us Women Health Center f/k/a Woman to Woman Health Center, WIPO Case No. D2012-1555.
In this case, the only alleged rights in TAKEOUT.COM that could have arisen prior to Respondent’s registration of the disputed domain name stem from Complainant’s use of TARHEEL TAKE-OUT EXPRESS at the domain name <tarheeltakeout.com> for services rendered in North Carolina. In its trademark application, filed roughly six years after Respondent registered the generic or commonly descriptive term “takeout” as a domain name, Complainant alleges that its first use of TAKEOUT.COM occurred in 2010. Given the record, it strains credulity to believe that Complainant did not know or should not have known that it had no trademark rights in TAKEOUT.COM that could serve as the basis for this Complaint. It is no excuse that Complainant may not be familiar with clear Policy precedent, the Policy, or the Rules.
For the foregoing reasons, the Panel makes a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking.
While the Panel recognizes that Complainant attempted to withdraw its Complaint after learning that the Respondent acquired the disputed domain name for a legitimate use, the Panel does not believe that the Respondent should in the circumstances have been forced to present such evidence in light of Complainant’s previously disclosed lack of rights in “takeout.com” in combination with the commonly descriptive nature of that term. For Complainant to have brought these meritless UDRP proceedings in the first place is such circumstances and to have put the Respondent to the not insignificant cost of having to mount a defense to a baseless claim should be discouraged.

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