The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center recently decided that the domain marlenedietrich.com had to be transferred to the Marlene Dietrich Collection GmbH, the proprietor of a German trade mark registration for the word mark "Marlene Dietrich".

The domain name did not appear to have ever been in use, and the complainant only filed "incomplete evidence" of previous correspondence with the respondent discussing a possible transfer of the domain. The respondent did not reply to the complainant’s contentions during the proceedings.

Nonetheless, the panel decided that "the respondent had registered the Domain Name with the intention of exploiting (...) the goodwill associated with the Complainant’s widely known trademark, a trademark in which the respondent has no rights or legitimate interests." The panel further ruled that the Domain Name had been registered in bad faith within the meaning of paragraph 4(a)(iii) of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy ("the Policy") and as such had to be transferred to the complainant. On the point of "bad faith" the panel found that paragraph 4(b) of the Policy contained of a non exhaustive list and that (...)

"(a) the name of Marlene Dietrich is world famous,

(b) it is highly probable that the respondent, when he registered the Domain Name, appreciated that it was a registered trademark — a very high proportion of such names are registered as trademarks,

(c) accordingly, he will have appreciated from the outset that the domain name will have had a substantial commercial value and

(d) he will be likely to have known that anyone (other than the complainant or a licensee of the complainant) making commercial use of the Domain Name would be likely to be infringing the complainant’s rights."

• More information about Marlene Dietrich can be found here and here.
  
• The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy can be found here.