WIPO Rules Against Estonian Student in Domain Name Dispute

On January 19, 2010, WIPO ruled that the domain name HQRedTube.com should be transferred from the Estonian student Senja Dumpin to Bright Imperial Ltd. of Hong Kong, the parent company of adult website RedTube.

RedTube argued that its brand is well-known in Estonia, citing statistics from the rating agency Alexa.com, showing that its website is the most popular adult website in Estonia and the 64th most popular site overall in Estonia. They also provided evidence that Dumpin’s website HQRedTube.com, created in April 2009, contained advertisements for adult videos, arguing that it copied the look and feel of RedTube’s website. RedTube also noted that Dumpin asked for USD 10,000 (EUR 7,260) to take down the website, presenting this as further proof of bad faith.

Dumpin told WIPO’s arbitrators that he did not make any money from this website and that RedTube did not lose any money by not having this domain. He also stressed that his website HQRedTube.com never had any content but only pointed to another website.

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Source: WIPO