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Torrington Savings Bank v. North AmericanExport Company [2003] GENDND 507 (19 May 2003)


National Arbitration Forum

DECISION

Torrington Savings Bank v. North American Export Company

Claim Number: FA0303000147312

PARTIES

Complainant is Torrington Savings Bank, Torrington, CT (“Complainant”).  Respondent is North American Export Company, Harwinton, CT (“Respondent”).

REGISTRAR AND DISPUTED DOMAIN NAME

The domain name at issue is <torringtonsavingsbank.com>, registered with Network Solutions, Inc.

PANEL

The undersigned certifies that he has acted independently and impartially and to the best of his knowledge has no known conflict in serving as Panelist in this proceeding.

Fernando Triana, Esq., as Panelist.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Complainant submitted a Complaint to the National Arbitration Forum (the “Forum”) electronically on March 3, 2003; the Forum received a hard copy of the Complaint on March 14, 2003.

On March 5, 2003, Network Solutions, Inc. confirmed by e-mail to the Forum that the domain name <torringtonsavingsbank.com> is registered with Network Solutions, Inc. and that Respondent is the current registrant of the name.  Network Solutions, Inc. has verified that Respondent is bound by the Network Solutions, Inc. registration agreement and has thereby agreed to resolve domain-name disputes brought by third parties in accordance with ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Policy”).

On March 20, 2003, a Notification of Complaint and Commencement of Administrative Proceeding (the “Commencement Notification”), setting a deadline of April 9, 2003 by which Respondent could file a Response to the Complaint, was transmitted to Respondent via e-mail, post and fax, to all entities and persons listed on Respondent’s registration as technical, administrative and billing contacts, and to postmaster@torringtonsavingsbank.com by e-mail.

A timely Response was received and determined to be complete on April 11, 2003.

On April 22, 2003, pursuant to Complainant’s request to have the dispute decided by a single-member Panel, the Forum appointed Fernando Triana, Esq. as Panelist.

On April 30, 2003, in accordance with paragraphs 10 and 12 of the Rules, the Panelist ordered the Complainant to file evidence of the statements set forth in the Complaint. The Complainant complied with the order on May 5, 2003.

The Respondent did not submit any response with respect to the Complainant’s further evidence.

RELIEF SOUGHT

Complainant requests that the domain name be transferred from Respondent to Complainant.

PARTIES’ CONTENTIONS

A. Complainant

Complainant states that Torrington Savings Bank is a mutual savings bank established in 1868. According to the Complaint, the Complainant does not use any trademarks or service marks.

Complainant explains that there has been confusion with its customers in their attempt to find Torrington Savings Bank on the Internet and/or contact it by email, which is of concern due to the confidential nature of the banking business. Complainant asserts that the conflicting domain name should be owned by it and that the Respondent does not have any legitimate interest in it.

Complainant contends that the Respondent does not have any business, trademark, service mark, product, service or any other claim to the Torrington Savings Bank name. It further states that the Respondent’s sole intention in owning the domain name at issue is for the purpose of selling it to the Complainant for a profit.

Additionally, the Complainant states that the Respondent has not used the domain name for any reason. The Respondent is not known by the domain name nor has any trademark or service marks that relate to the domain name. The Respondent has no legitimate noncommercial or fair use of the domain name.

With respect to the bad faith requirement of the Policy, the Complainant contends that the conflicting domain name has been registered in bad faith by the Respondent for the following reasons:

(i.) The Respondent purchased the domain names of other local financial institutions. In one case, Respondent initially offered to sell a domain name to a local bank for as much as $47,500.00. The bank settled for $1,750.00. Complainant states that it has documentation to support this.

(ii.) The Respondent has owned the domain name at issue for three (3) years and has not created any website. In addition, the domain name is only used for e-mail, so that when a Complainant’s customer mistakenly sends an e-mail through the <torringtonsavingsbank.com> domain name, Respondent receives the message and then contacts Complainant with an offer to sell the domain name for a profit.

(iii.) The Respondent has made it clear both verbally and via e-mail that its only intention in owning the disputed domain name is to sell it to the Complainant for a profit. A recent offer was made by the Respondent for $1,750.00, but Complainant offered to compensate only the Respondent’s out-of-pocket expenses in the amount of $250.00. Respondent refused this offer and is holding firm for $1,750.00.

B. Respondent

In its response, Respondent contended that the National Arbitration Forum is without jurisdiction to arbitrate this matter and to affect the rights of Respondent, since Respondent is not a company hosting websites and is not a signatory to any agreement to submit these matters to binding arbitration. Respondent asserts that it has not knowingly signed any agreement during the registration process which would in effect waive the rights of Respondent to contest any procedure in a court of competent jurisdiction or any agreement which causes it to waive any of its statutorily prescribed rights to arbitrate matters as prescribed by the law of the State of Connecticut or other jurisdictions that would be involved. According to Respondent, any such waiver must be knowingly made, set forth separately and clearly and would involve adequate consideration and specific knowledge such as the procedure followed by the New York Stock Exchange. Respondent states that it has never signed such an agreement nor has such an agreement been offered to it in the course of the registration process. The only matter that is important during the registration process is the availability of the name and a credit card to pay for the registration itself.

Respondent concedes that hosting companies are signatories to a contract and are bound by that contract in terms of adjudicating rights of contending site holders but the Respondent is not a party of such a contract and is not bound by its terms. Any mandatory change in the ownership of this site affected by arbitration without jurisdiction would be considered illegal and cause damage to the Respondent and must give rise to claims against the offending parties.

Notwithstanding, Respondent asserts that the Complainant is not the holder of a trademark, copyright or any other prior legitimate right over the domain name at issue. The National Arbitration Forum arbitration scheme is designed to adjudicate the rights of  “trademark owners” or to solve “trademark –based domain name disputes”. However, Complainant comes to this Forum without a trademark or trade name and therefore it has no claim to the property of the Respondent. To this effect, Respondent cites the decision in the case of E&J Gallo Winery v. Spider Webs, [2002] USCA5 122; 286 F.3d 270 (5th Cir. 2002).

Respondent further states that it has not created a website under the conflicting domain name and thus there can be no confusion by the Complainant’s customers in going to such a website. Customers can certainly search for a site offered by the Complainant but no customer has tried to do banking business on a non-existent site.

According to the Respondent, there is no use of the site to disparage or denigrate or otherwise cause business harm to the Complainant. This Complaint amounts to tortuous interference with the rights of the Respondent to its properly purchased property and is an attempt to cause a breach of contract with other institutions that have purchased a URL from the Respondent. The Complainant has used information submitted to it by a local website-hosting firm, which information was gained during the confidential activities involving the purchase of another website by a local financial institution. That same website hosting company, The Henry Group, is now claiming that the Respondent’s ownership of this site is illegal even though it negotiated the sale of another site, under the same circumstances, to another local financial institution. The Respondent relied upon the expertise of The Henry Group and consummated the sale without objection and without any claims of improper ownership of a site. Complainant cannot use this type of evidence nor can The Henry Group be on all sides of the transaction with impunity.

Respondent contends that it has a valid private interest in this domain name, regardless of the fact that the Complainant does “feel strongly” that it should own this site. Respondent seeks no commercial gain by the exploitation of the site, does not mislead consumers, as they are non-existent at this non-existent site. Personal private investment purposes are not prohibited by the scheme put forth by the Forum. It is an asset of the Respondent, which could have been readily purchased by the Complainant.

Additionally, Respondent states that the Forum must be aware of the hundreds of companies selling non-trademarked, non-trade named and non-copyrighted websites. According to the theory of the Complaint, all of these must be illegal operations. The registrant in this matter sought no particular information from the Respondent when the Respondent sought to purchase the site. Respondent made no representations to any party during this process and it is slanderous to now suggest that this purchase was a “bad faith” transaction. The court decisions are clear that to show “bad faith” there must be an attempt to damage a recognized and protected trademark, trade name or copyright and that it is being used for the benefit of the site owner, to the derogation of the party with a legal interest and to suggest otherwise in this Complaint is slanderous to the Respondent.

C. Additional Submissions

As ordered by the Panel, the Complainant filed an additional submission enclosing evidence of the use of the Torrington Savings Bank name, such as a Torrington Savings Bank calendar from 1970, newspaper advertisements from 1949 and 1977 and the Complainant’s financial statements from 1977.

With respect to the Respondent’s offers to sell the conflicting domain name, the Complainant filed copies of the communications between the parties, in the form of e-mails, which took place from November 22, 2000 to February 18, 2003.

Finally, the Complainant clarified that the evidence to support that the Respondent sold other domain name to a local bank, could be obtained by contacting the Vice President or any senior bank personnel of Litchfield Bancorp. However, the offer to sell the domain name was made verbally by the Respondent.

After being duly notified of this additional submission from the Complainant, the Respondent remained silent.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Paragraph 15(a) of the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Rules”) instructs this Panel to “decide a Complaint on the basis of the statements and documents submitted in accordance with the Policy, these Rules and any rules and principles of law that it deems applicable.”

Likewise, paragraph 10 (d) of the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, provides that “[t]he Panel shall determine the admissibility, relevance, materiality and weight of the evidence.”

In the present case, the Panel wants to place emphasis on the importance of the evidence filed by the parties to prove their assertions, which has been studied to determine its relevance and weight in arriving at a decision. The Panel wishes to clarify that the statements that have been accompanied by evidence have been given more importance than the mere statements made by the parties without further demonstration of their existence. Likewise, the Panel has accepted as enough evidence of a fact, the documentation filed by a party that has not been contested by the other party.

Paragraph 4(a) of the Policy requires that the Complainant must prove each of the following three elements to obtain an order that a domain name should be cancelled or transferred:

(1) the domain name registered by the Respondent is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the Complainant has rights;

(2) the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and

(3) the domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

Applicability of this proceeding to the present conflict

As a previous issue to be dealt with, the Panel wishes to make some comments to the Respondent’s allegations that it does not accept the Forum’s jurisdiction to arbitrate this matter.

The Panel finds that, by entering into the Registration Agreement with the Registrar, Network Solutions, Inc., the Respondent agreed to submit to any administrative proceeding, properly constituted in accordance with the Policy and the Rules, before any ICANN-approved service provider, of which the National Arbitration Forum is one. This Respondent agreed to be bound by the Policy and to submit any conflict to the administrative proceeding ruled by it when Respondent registered the conflicting domain name through an on-line process.

It is not acceptable for the Panel to assert that since Respondent did not knowingly agree to submit this matter to binding arbitration, the Panel lacks jurisdiction to decide this conflict. The Panel notes that in most registration processes, if not all of them, the registrants are requested to read the entire text of the Service Agreement that will rule the relationship between the Registrar and the registrant. Such Service Agreement includes a provision by which registrants agree to submit to the Policy and to accept the jurisdiction of ICANN’s approved service providers in case conflicts arise over the registered domain name. Usually, the Policy is incorporated in the agreements.

The mandatory nature of this procedure was strongly recommended by the Final Report of the WIPO Internet Domain Name Process, dated April 30, 1999. The reasons are clearly explained below:

Mandatory Nature of the Procedure

1.        In the WIPO Interim Report, it was recommended that the administrative procedure be mandatory in the sense that each domain name applicant would, in the domain name registration agreement, be required to submit to the procedure if a claim was initiated against it by a third party.  If submission to the procedure were to be optional for applicants, it was considered that the adoption of the procedure would not result in significant improvement on the present situation, since those persons who register domain names in bad faith in abuse of the intellectual property rights of others would be unlikely to choose to submit to a procedure that was cheaper and faster than litigation, but would instead prefer to leave the legitimate owners of intellectual property rights with the possibility only of initiating court litigation, with its attendant costs and delays.

The fact that the Respondent did not read the clauses that rule its relationship with the Registrant at the time of the registration of the domain name is not an acceptable reason to challenge the competence and jurisdiction of this Panel and the applicability of the Policy.

Respondent believes that it has not “knowingly signed any agreement during the registration process” and that such an agreement “must be knowingly made, set forth separately and clearly and would involve adequate consideration.” In this regard, the Panel wishes to clarify that the Respondent’s apparent carelessness in reading the registration agreement with the concerned Registrant and analyzing the consequences of the registration of the domain name, cannot be used by it as a reason to refuse the jurisdiction of the Forum and of this Panel. The relevant fact in this issue is that the Respondent agreed to be bound by such an agreement when registering the domain name. Whether such acceptance was made knowingly or not by the Respondent, or whether it agreed to do so by signing a paper or by a simple click on the Registrant’s website, are not to be taken into consideration by the Panel at this time.

Apparently, the Respondent thought that the “only matter that is important during the registration process is the availability of the name and a credit card to pay for the registration itself.” Unfortunately for the Respondent, many other issues are important during the process of registration of a domain name, and the Panel expects that the Respondent will be more careful in future agreements in which it is involved.

Due to the above, it can be concluded that the Panel has jurisdiction to decide this matter and that the Respondent agreed to submit to this administrative proceeding when registering the domain name at issue.

Identical and/or Confusingly Similar

Complainant asserts that it is a mutual savings bank established in 1868, but that it does not use any trademarks or service marks. Notwithstanding, upon request of the Panel, the Complainant filed evidence of the use of the Torrington Savings Bank name since at least 1949. Consequently, the Panel concludes that the Complainant intends to base its Complaint on its unregistered rights over the name Torrington Savings Bank and its identity with the domain name <torringtonsavingsbank.com>.

Under the Policy, a Complainant may establish common law rights over its mark, when such common law rights are recognized in its country of origin. In the present case, the Complainant is a savings bank domiciled in the United States of America, where common law marks are recognized.

In this sense, previous Panels have recognized that the Policy is not limited to disputes involving registered trademarks or service marks. For instance, the Panel in the case of British Broadcasting Corporation v. Jaime Renteria, D2000-0050  (WIPO Mar. 23, 2000) stated the following:

This Administrative Panel acknowledges that the Uniform Policy in paragraph 4(a)(i) refers merely to a "trademark or service mark" in which the Complainant has rights, and in particular does not expressly limit the application of the Uniform Policy to a registered trademark or service mark of the Complainant. Further, this Administrative Panel recognizes that the WIPO Final Report on the Internet Domain Name Process (The Management of Internet Names and Address: Intellectual Property Issues, April 1999), from which the Uniform Policy is derived, does not distinguish between registered and unregistered trademarks and service marks in the context of abusive registration of domain names. It is therefore open to conclude that the Uniform Policy is applicable to unregistered trademarks and service marks.

Additionally, the Panel notes that the “.com” suffix is not an element to be considered when analyzing the identity or similarity between the Complainant’s common law mark and the conflicting domain name. See Wal-Mart Stpres, Inc. v. Walsucks and Walmarket Puerto Rico[1], stating that: “[t]he addition of the generic top-level domain (gTLD) name ‘.com’ is without legal significance since use of a gTLD is required of domain name registrants, ‘.com’ is one of only several such gTLDs, and ‘.com’ does not serve to identify a specific enterprise as a source of goods or services.”

Considering the Complainant’s common law mark, “Torrington Savings Bank,” and the relevant part of the Respondent’s domain name <torringtonsavingsbank>, the Panel concludes that they are identical and therefore, the Complainant has met the requirement of Policy ¶ 4(a)(i).

Rights or Legitimate Interests

Under Policy Paragraph ¶ 4(c), the following circumstances, in particular but without limitation, if found by the Panel to be present, shall demonstrate the Respondent’s rights or legitimate interests to the domain name:

(i) Before any notice to Respondent of the dispute, it has used or made demonstrable preparations to use the domain name or a name corresponding to the domain name in connection with a bona fide offering of goods or services; or

(ii) Respondent (as an individual, business, or other organization) has been commonly known by the domain name, even if he has acquired no trademark or service mark rights; or

(iii) Respondent is making a legitimate noncommercial or fair use of the domain name, without intent for commercial gain to misleadingly divert consumers or to tarnish the trademark or service mark at issue.

Complainant has contended that Respondent lacks rights or legitimate interests on the domain name at issue and that it registered the domain name solely for the purpose of selling it to the Complainant for profit. Respondent on the contrary has asserted that the domain name at issue is its properly purchased property and that it has valid private interest in this URL.

The Panel notes that the Respondent neither explained nor provided evidence of its “private investment purposes” with regard to the conflicting domain name. On the contrary, Complainant filed evidence to demonstrate that the Respondent has attempted to sell the domain name for profit and has contended that the domain name has not been used in connection with any bona fide or legitimate commercial or non-commercial activity.

Studying the evidence filed by the Complainant, the Panel finds that though the several e-mails crossed between the parties, the Respondent never expressed an interest in the domain name other than to sell it to the Complainant. Particularly, in the message dated November 22, 2000, in response to the Complainant’s question as to its purpose for purchasing the domain name, the Respondent stated: “I think we have owned it (the domain name) for since the beginning of the year. It seems to be a good url and one that has a certain symmetry for your bank, as you would agree.”

In the present case, the Panel has placed emphasis on the fact that Respondent did not contest any of the evidence filed by the Complainant to support its Complaint. Therefore, all the evidence will be accepted as proof of the Complainant’s statements. With respect to the Respondent’s lack of rights and legitimate interests over the domain name subject to the controversy, the Panel notes that the Respondent failed to demonstrate any of the circumstances described under Policy ¶ 4(c), or any other for the same purpose. As stated by the Complainant, Respondent does not have any trademark or service mark, product or service in connection with the name “Torrington Savings Bank.” The Respondent is not known by the domain name at issue and has not developed any legitimate commercial or non-commercial activity through the domain name <torringtonsavingsbank.com>. It appears that Respondent’s only use of the domain name was its offer to sell it to the Complainant.

In a similar case, in the administrative proceeding of Kinko’s Inc. v. eToll, Inc. f/k/a E Corp, FA 94447 (Nat. Arb. Forum May 27, 2000), the Panel concluded the following:

There was no evidence in the record, which would indicate that Respondent had any right or legitimate interest in respect to the domain name kinkosoffice.com other that (sic) it has registered the domain name. If mere registration of the domain name was sufficient to establish rights or legitimate interests for the purposes of paragraph 4(a)(ii) of the Policy, then all registrants would have such rights or interests, and no Complainant could succeed on a complaint of abusive registration. Construing the policy so as to avoid an illogical result, the Panel concludes that the mere registration does not establish rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name.

There is no evidence of any legitimate use or preparation for use of the disputed domain name by Respondent. Rather it appeared that the domain name was registered for the ultimate use of the Complainant. Therefore . . . the Complainant established the second element necessary to prevail on its claim of abusive domain name registration.

It is the Panel’s opinion that the Respondent registered the domain name for the ultimate use of the Complainant as in the cited case. It is important to point out that the common law mark involved in this proceeding has some particularities that deserve special analysis. The Complaint’s “Torrington Savings Bank” mark makes clear reference to the nature of the owner of the mark. It is obvious that “Torrington Savings Bank” corresponds to the name of the Savings Bank of the city of Torrington, since financial institutions commonly use such a combination of the name of the city where the bank is domiciled with the words “Savings Bank.” Therefore, it is evident that the only entity with a legitimate interest over the domain name <torringtonsavingsbank.com> is the Torrington Savings Bank, located in the city of Torrington, State of Connecticut, United States of America.

The domain name at issue is apparently used by the Respondent as a direct link to the website <finitesite.com >, which offers web hosting services. Such use is not related in any way to the domain name in conflict and cannot be accepted as evidence of a legitimate interest in the part of Respondent.

Based on all of the above, the Panel finds that the Respondent failed to demonstrate that it has rights and legitimate interests in the domain name under controversy and that the Complainant met the requirements of Policy ¶ 4(c).

Registration and Use in Bad Faith

According to Policy ¶ 4(b), the following circumstances, in particular but without limitation, if found by the Panel to be present, shall be evidence of the registration and use of a domain name in bad faith:

(i) Circumstances indicating that Respondent has registered or has acquired the domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring the domain name registration to the Complainant who is the owner of the trademark or service mark or to a competitor of that Complainant, for valuable consideration in excess of Respondent’s documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the domain name; or

(ii) Circumstances indicating that Respondent has registered the domain name in order to prevent the owner of the trademark or service mark from reflecting the mark in a corresponding domain name, provided that Respondent has engaged in a pattern of such conduct; or

(iii) Circumstances indicating that Respondent has registered the domain name primarily for the purpose of disrupting the business of a competitor; or

(iv) Circumstances indicating that, by using the domain name, Respondent has intentionally attempted to attract, for commercial gain, Internet users to its website or other on-line location, by creating a likelihood of confusion with the Complainant's mark as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of its website or location or of a product or service on its website or location.

Complainant has contended that Respondent registered and uses the domain name at issue in bad faith, for the purpose of selling it to the Complainant for commercial gain. Complainant also states that through the domain name, the Respondent has attempted to create confusion among the consumer public to force Complainant to purchase the domain name for an excessive price. Respondent denies this allegation, stating that there can be no confusion among consumers since it has not created a website under the domain name at issue.

The Panel concludes from the evidence filed by the Complainant, that the Respondent knew of the existence of Complainant prior to registering the domain name. Both Respondent and Complainant are domiciled in the State of Connecticut, United States of America. Therefore, it is very likely that Respondent knew of the existence of the city of Torrington, domicile of the Complainant, as well as the existence of the Complainant itself. Considering the wording of the e-mails sent by Respondent to Complainant, the Panel concluded that Respondent was perfectly aware of the existence of Complainant and of its rights over the domain name, prior to registering it. Likewise, the Panel believes that Respondent was aware of its own lack of rights over the domain name <torringtonsavingsbank.com>, and despite that, decided to register it.

In addition, the Panel finds that the Respondent has passively held the domain for more than three (3) years. Passive holding has been found to be evidence of bad faith registration and use under the Policy. See Cruzeiro Licenciamientos Ltda. v. Sallen, D2000-0715 (WIPO Sept. 6, 2000) and DCI S.A. v. Link Commercial Corporation, D2000-1232 (WIPO Dec. 7, 2000). The Respondent has not developed any plausible use of the domain name other than attempting to sell it to Complainant.

Regarding this attempt to sell the domain name to Complainant for profit, the Panel notes that in accordance with uncontested evidence filed by Complainant, the price requested by Respondent was for valuable consideration in excess of Respondent’s documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the domain name. In fact, in its email dated February 13, 2003, Complainant offered to purchase the domain name for no more than $250.00. In response, the Respondent stated that it would “discuss a reasonable price, rather than your attempt to dragoon us into a transfer by the ICANN.” It added that it had “sold a couple of these recently and found the negotiating to be fair and deliberate and worthwhile. So I leave it to you to inquire of a fair price or feel free to file with ICANN.” When Complainant refused to negotiate, Respondent answered by e-mail on February 18, 2003: “I want your file to reflect that this site was for sale to your bank for $2250.00.”

The Panel considers that this attempt to sell the domain name to the Complainant meets the requirements of Policy ¶ 4(b). It is irrelevant to this case whether the Respondent undertook other negotiations with different financial institutions and under what circumstances. In its response, the Respondent stated that this “complaint amounts to tortuous interference with the rights of the Respondent to its properly purchased property and is an attempt to cause a breach of contract with other institutions that have purchased a URL from the Respondent.” To the extent of this decision, the Panel will only take into account that there was an attempt to sell the domain name <torringtonsavingsbank.com> to the Complainant for a price in excess of the costs directly related to the domain name.

Several previous panels have found bad faith when the Respondent attempts to sell the domain name to the Complainant. In Pocatello Idaho Auditorium District v. CES Marketing Group, Inc., FA 103186 (Nat. Arb. Forum Feb. 21, 2002), although the Panel arrived at a different decision, the following analysis is applicable to the present controversy:

What makes an offer to sell a domain bad faith is some accompanying evidence that the domain was registered because of its value that is in some way dependent on the trademark of another, and then an offer to sell it to the trademark owner or a competitor of the trademark owner.  Such cases also frequently have further evidence that the owner of the domain has engaged in similar transactions with other marks, i.e, traffics in domain names.

In addition, the Panel notes that Respondent, by registering the domain name at issue, is preventing the Complainant from reflecting its mark in a corresponding domain name. Respondent was aware of the existence of Complainant and of its legitimate rights over the domain name <torringtonsavingsbank.com>; nevertheless, Respondent decided to register and use it and even attempted to develop negotiations with Complainant over such name. As explained above, the only entity with legitimate rights and interests over the domain name in conflict is Complainant, and therefore, due to Respondent’s bad faith registration, it has not been able to reflect its complete name in a domain name accompanied by the suffix “.com.”

The Panel undertook a search and found that Complainant develops its financial activities in the Internet through the domain name <torringtonsavings.com>. The existence of this domain name does not affect Complainant’s rights to seek the transference of the domain name subject to this proceeding, due to the fact that Respondent’s domain name is the one that reflects Complainant’s name in its entirety. Complainant has been forced to use a domain name that partially reproduces its name, without including the word “bank,” which is of evident importance considering the nature of Complainant.

Considering the aforementioned, the Panel finds that Complainant met its burden of proof in demonstrating that the Respondent registered and uses the domain name in bad faith.

DECISION

Having established all three elements required under ICANN Policy, the Panel concludes that relief shall be GRANTED.

Accordingly, it is Ordered that the <torringtonsavingsbank.com> domain name be TRANSFERRED from Respondent to Complainant.

Fernando Triana, Esq., Panelist
Dated: May 19, 2003


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