Case Number: D2025-1527
Complainant: Smarkets Limited
Represented by: Internally represented
A company operating in the England and Wales, but with trademark registrations in Ireland and Malta, has been hit with a ruling of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking for its use of the UDRP process to force a domain name transfer. Smarkets Limited was handed the RDNH ruling by a three-member panel of the World Intellectual Property Organization, after filing its complaint to compel the transfer of sbk.com.
The panelists, John Swinson, Aaron Newell and Jane Lambert, wrote that while the company did have trademarks, they all post-dated the domain registration by 23 years, making it impossible to sustain Smarkets’ argument the domain had been registered in bad faith, as an attempt to target the complainant.
The RDNH ruling was handed up July 29, 2025.
Source: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/pdf/2025/d2025-1527.pdf