Lamborghini Wins Another Domain Name Dispute

Famous sports car maker Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. was pleased to find out that WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) ruled positive on two complaints made by the Italian-based company regarding trademark disputes on two domain names.

The cases dealt with the registration and bad faith usage of the lamborghiniracingteam.com and lamborghiniteam.com by an undisclosed person that used them illicitly, breaking international trademark and copyright laws. The respondent previously acquired three Lamborghini racing cars that he wanted to enter and use in the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo 2009 race.

Being faced with payment difficulties, the respondent registered the above mentioned domain names and directed them to a web page where visitors were encouraged to sponsor the respondent to participate in the race. Lamborghini proved that the money would have been used to pay off the cars that he previously bought, and that the respondent used the “Lamborghini” term to trick visitors.

The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center Panel ruled that the Italian car maker had its brand and trademarks illicitly used and ordered the respondent to transfer the lamborghiniracingteam.com and lamborghiniteam.com domain names to Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.

These recent wins come after a similar dispute that was favorably resolved by WIPO in April 2009. In that case, Lamborghini accused Unity 4 Humanity Inc. of intentionally registering the lamborghini.tv domain and redirecting online traffic to the respondent's homepage, a real estate website on which it prominently advertised a TV channel for one of Lamborghini's car making competitors. Even if WIPO accepted the explanation that Lamborghini was a popular name in Italy, it ruled that the domain name could confuse users as to think it was the well-known Lamborghini trademark.

After that case, the WIPO panel concluded that Unity 4 Humanity registered the domain name in bad faith and ordered it to transfer the usage rights to Lamborghini.