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If
there was a Dumbest UDRP Filing of the Year
Award
consumer products giant Procter & Gamble
would probably have the 2013 dishonor sewed
up and we are not even through the first
quarter of the year yet. In a stunning decision
handed down by a WIPO panel today (first
reported by Andrew Allemann at DomainNameWire)
P&G was found guilty of a reverse
domain name hijacking attempt after they
tried to steal the domain Swash.com from
its rightful owner - Marchex Sales, Inc.
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It
was not a "stunning" decision in
the sense that the ruling was a surprise,
it was stunning because of the wildly
false claims in the filing from
P&G's attorneys - Keating Muething
& Klekamp PLL - that resulted in
the case blowing up in P&G's face (whether
P&G gave their attorneys phony
information or the attorneys, who signed
off on the document, came up with the zany
numbers, is unknown). In
any case, credit Marchex's attorney, John
Berryhill, long recognized as one of
the very best in the business, for
spotting the bogus P&G claims.
The most embarrassing had to be the one
where P&G said their Swash
product had done $40 million in sales
over the past four |
uh-oh!
image from Bigstock |
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years.
That surprised me because I have
never heard of Swash. Apparently no one
else has either because when Berryhill
called them on it, P&G admitted the
sales were actually a miniscule $60,000!
This, of course, did not boost P&G's credibility
with the WIPO panel, nor did the fact that
Marchex has owned the domain for far
longer than P&G has even had a
product called Swash - strike two
on P&G. |
Of
course, that did not escape Mr.
Berryhill's notice either. You have about as
much chance of slipping stuff with that kind of stench
past John as you do of winning the Powerball
lottery playing 13-13-13-13-13-13 (note to
P&G and their attorneys: each ball has a different
number so don't try this - it won't work
either).
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Shame
image from Bigstock |
While
there is no financial penalty for being branded
a reverse domain name hijacker, odds are
future Procter & Gamble UDRP filings
(and they make a lot of them) are going to
be given extra scrutiny by WIPO
panelists (who may also want to wear a clothespin
on their nose when reading P&G
filings). Of course P&G, though
they lost the case, did win a nifty
consolation prize - a permanent place on Rick
Schwartz's Reverse
Domain Hijacking Wall of Shame
(an honor that is about as sought after as
being poked in the eye with a sharp
stick).
Now, if
you'll excuse me, while continuing to
shake my head in wonderment, I need to go
pour some bottles of Tide down the
drain. Who knows what is really in
that stuff. I know what the label says
but, all of the sudden, I'm not sure I
can take P&G's word for it. |
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