Skype affiliate can keep Skyp.com
Benjamin Decraene from Belgium is the owner of the domain name skyp.com, and uses the domain name to redirect visitors to skype.com. WIPO denied skype.com complaint. The WIPO expert took into account the fact that the respondent is an affiliate of the complainant:
“After reviewing all of the proof provided by the Complainant and the Respondent, the Panel finds it established that the Respondent has been allowed – on several occasions – to insert a hyperlink on his website to the Complainant’s website within the scope of different affiliation programs. The fact that an announcer expressly accepts – as in this case – that an affiliate becomes part of an affiliation program hyperlinking to the announcer’s website may, according to this Panel, be considered as an authorization/permission to use the Domain Name. The Complainant, by accepting the Respondent as an affiliate, could perhaps be regarded as having recognized the rights and/or legitimate interests of the Respondent in the Domain Name.”
2 comments February 7th, 2006