CIRA Panel Concludes "Bad Faith" Standard Different in .ca Disputes Than Those In .com Disputes

On April 8, 2003, panellists of the British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Centre (BC ICAC) issued their decision that the domain name www.radiocanada.ca should be transferred to CBC/Radio-Canada from Williams Quon, based on the finding that Quon had registered the domain name in bad faith. Unlike the dispute resolution policy used for generic domain names such as .com (UDRP), under the .ca Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (CDRP), there is an exhaustive list of the types of bad faith necessary to warrant transfer of a domain name. This list in paragraph 3.7 of the CDRP can be summarized as follows:

• registration with the goal of selling to the complainant, its licensees or competitors;
• a pattern of registration to prevent mark owners from registering; or
• registration by a competitor to disrupt the complainant's business.

Elements of the CDRP may still be interpreted according to UDRP-based precedents. In this case, Quon had also registered , and , but did not have a legitimate interest in, nor had he actively used the domains. The panel accepted the UDRP-based decision transferring the and domains, that registration of as few as two domain names is sufficient to establish a pattern of bad faith registration of third party marks. As such, the panel ordered the registrar to transfer the domain name to CBC/Radio-Canada. For the panel decision in Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada v. William Quon (April 8, 2003), DCA 681-CIRA (BC ICAC), please visit http://cira.ca/en/dpr-decisions/00006_radiocanada_decision_en.pdf. For the earlier decision in New York Life Insurance Company v. Arunesh C. Puthiyoth, D2000-0812 (WIPO) transferring the and domains, please visit http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2000/d2000-0812.html For the CIRA Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (CDRP), please visit http://www.cira.ca/en/cat_dpr_policy.html Summary by: Nicholas J. Whalen