WIPO Panel Decides Eurail Pass Domain Names Dispute

An administrative panel of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has recently decided a case under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) between Eurail (the European joint venture supplying tickets and passes for rail and ship travel in Europe) as Complainant and Epasses of San Francisco as Respondent. Eurail uses the names "Eurailticket" and "Eurail Pass" for its tickets and passes.   It has registered "EURAIL" and "EURAILPASS" as trade-marks in the US and other countries.   Epasses has a web site at offering Eurail Passes and other tickets for use on railways in Europe.   The dispute concerned the domain names , and that Epasses registered. The Panel applied the three-part test set out under paragraph 4 of the UDRP.   First, it ruled that the disputed domain names are confusingly similar to the Complainant Eurails registered trade-marks.   However, a distinction for the purpose of the second part of the test was made between and on the one hand, and on the other.   In the former case, there was no evidence that Epasses_ use of the sites had been illegitimate, especially in view of its legitimate use of .   The Panel decided that the issue of whether Epasses_ activities would constitute trade-mark infringement or unfair competition should be determined in court proceedings. The position in relation to was different.   This domain name was effectively identical to the Complainant_s corporate name, rather than designating a product which the Respondent was selling.   The Panel concluded on the balance of probabilities that the Respondent did not have a right or legitimate interest in this domain name As a result, the Panel ordered that (and not the other two domain names) be transferred to Eurail. See the WIPO Panel Decision at: http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2003/d2003-0393.html   Summary by:   Peter Wang