14 DAY TRIAL // Although all the time the big fishes seem to win all the big battles all over the world today, I witnessed something worthy to be written down on paper and hanged in a frame on one of the walls of my apartment. Motorola, the big a** mobile phone manufacturer we all know, lost the lawsuit it filed so it can forcedly take the Internet domain motorazr.com from its rightful owner.
Motorola's complaint said the domain name is very similar to one of its previously registered trademarks, that the owners of the domain don't have any legitimate interests or rights to register the domain in the first place and that they have been using it in "bad faith".
The nice part begins now: the current owners of motorazr.com registered this domain in July 2004, whereas Motorola registered the MOTORAZR mark in June 2005. The WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) board asked Motorola to present itself with proof that they have been using the MOTORAZR moniker before the actual registration but Motorola, being as big of a company as it is, was unable (or unwilling) to do so.
Therefore, the board issued a declaration saying that "[Motorola has given] no explanation of why the evidence of [their] real and actual use of MOTORAZR is so thin, why a year passed from product launch to trademark application, and why [they] failed to respond to the [WIPO] Panel's express invitation to provide further information".
Next thing they did was to deny Motorola's allegations that the domain was designed to confuse the readers to visit some kind of advertising website. The ending of it all was very short and sudden, breaking Motorola's complaint into small pieces: "Please find attached the full text of the decision issued on February 15, 2007 by the Administrative Panel in the above-referenced case. The Administrative Panel's finding is as follows: For all the foregoing reasons, the Complaint is denied. Yours sincerely, Gabriele Bahr Case Manager".
Ending conclusion? All the big companies should stop the lawsuit rampage going on lately and think twice before suing anyone if they don't have enough proofs to back up their claims. Whatever their size and their monetary power, it seems there still are chances you can win a dispute with them in court.