Nat Cohen’s Telepathy can keep Libertad.com domain name.
Ari Goldberger’s ESQwire.com law firm has successfully defended Nat Cohen’s libertad.com domain name in a UDRP case.
“Libertad” means freedom or liberty in Spanish.
The case was brought by Libertad Servicios Financieros, S.A., a Mexican financial services company.
Playing in Cohen’s favor was the generic nature of the domain name, and that he registered 29 other generic Spanish language domain names within 90 days of registering Libertad.com in 1999.
Goldberger argued that the case was barred because of the doctrine of laches given the amount of time between the domain registration and this case. Two of the three panelists agreed that the delay needed to be explained by the complainant, even if laches didn’t automatically disqualify the case.
Laches is a hot topic in UDRPs. John Berryhill just won a case for Marchex for the domain name FreedomBenefits.com. In that case the panelist wrote:
“The Panel finds that the doctrine of laches does not apply as defense, however [….] the Panel considers the doctrine of laches as evidence for Respondent.”
It looks like this issue will continue to be hotly debated.
John Berryhill says
It seems that someone is having trouble figuring out how to count to three.
The libertad.com decision has the presiding panelist’s opinion, a concurrence, and then a note by the third panelist endorsing the concurrence.
Hence, two of the panelists agree on the subject of laches, and the presiding panelist’s view is the minority.
It would thus seem that the “concurrence” belongs in the main decision, and that the presiding panelist’s view on the issue of laches should be in a minority concurrence.
I count two panelists in that case agreeing on laches, and one not.
My zoology is a little rusty, but I believe it has been found that there are invertebrates which can distinguish that “2” is a larger quantity than “1”, and I am certain there are non-primate mammals that can figure that out.