Inventor of "MOTORAZR" Wins Domain Dispute Against Motorola
Mobile phone company Motorola has failed in its attempt to appropriate the domain name MOTORAZR.com without compensation from the domain's original registrant, Vincent Nguyen of R3 Media.
Nguyen, who runs the phone and gadget review sites SlashPhone and SlashGear, had coined the expression MOTORAZR in July 2004, which led to his registration of MOTORAZR.com for a planned news site about mobile phones.
In October 2006, Motorola filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) under ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), demanding that the domain be transferred to the company's ownership.
In its submission to WIPO's arbitration court, Motorola asserted that even though they had filed a trademark application for MOTORAZR as late as June 2005, they had started using the MOTORAZR brand in May 2004, two months before Nguyen registered MOTORAZR.com. When asked by the WIPO panelist to provide evidence of this claim, Motorola went silent and ignored the request.
Instead, Vincent Nguyen came forward with conclusive proof of his own: it was him who had coined the term MOTORAZR on July 27, 2004. That same day, Motorola announced the launch of a mobile phone that was, back then, still known as the "Motorola RAZR V3".
WIPO panelist Thomas D. Halket rejected Motorola's allegations that R3 Media was using the domain in "bad faith"…
“[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” [...]
and decided that MOTORAZR.com would stay with its current owner:
“For all the foregoing reasons, the Complaint is denied.”
This is not the first time that big companies or high profile individuals are unilaterally attacking their most dedicated fans and evangelists.
Consider the recent case of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences threatening the owner of Oscarwatch.com, one of the foremost independent PR machines for the Oscars, with a lawsuit unless she changes the domain name of her site.
Or Ringo Starr taking RingoStarr.mobi from a fan who was planning to create a non-commercial fan site.
Or Dell suing its own affiliates who generated tens of thousands of dollars in revenue for the company.
DomainMart's Alex Tajirian recently called for trademark owners to adopt a cooperative strategy in regards to domain name owners who are
potentially infringing on their brand names. The Daily Domainer fully agrees.
If Motorola still wants to own or control MOTORAZR.com they have the following three options:
- Initiate a lawsuit in a US court,
- make an offer for the domain, or
- negotiate a cooperative arrangement.
Motorola, your fans are watching… 
Sounds like Motorola was overconfident and didn't expect that they would have to actually prove their claims!