Case Number: D2021-3559
Complainant: Bybit Fintech Limited
Represented by: Norton Rose Fulbright
A cryptocurrency exchange company, Bybit Fintech Limited, has been found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking in connection with its effort to transfer to the domain bybt.com from its owner, a cryptocurrency exchange listing company, Liqian. Bybit Fintech is based in Seychelles, while Liqian is based in China. A single member panel of the World Intellectual Property Organization found Bybit misled the panel about its relationship with the respondent, in addition to the fact the domain was registered before Bybit accrued any trademark rights in regard to the domain name.
The panelist, Matthew Kennedy, took the complainant to task for specifically misrepresenting its relationship with Liqian, about which the panel learned from the response filing. “[T]he Panel notes that the Complainant filed the Complaint one month after proposing to invest in the Respondent’s business and days before the Respondent gave its final answer declining the offer.”
The RDNH ruling was handed up December 30, 2021.
Source: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2021-3559