Deutsche Kreditbank wins at WIPO

Deutsche Kreditbank has filed and won a dispute at the WIPO over the domain DKB.com. This is not surprising, however, considering the name’s owner never used the name, could not be reached, and did not respond to the filing.

The arbitrator, John Swinson, decided that the name was being used in bad faith and ordered it be transferred to the bank:

[I]t does not seem conceivable that the Respondent has legitimate plans to use the disputed domain name in the future when the name has been dormant for such an extended period of time and where (as the evidence suggests) the Respondent no longer exists.

Simply because the domain wasn’t being used and the owner could not be contacted, the arbitrator ruled it was being used in bad faith. In a true court of a law, a similar decision probably would have been made, but the idea that a registrant can lose a domain for failing to develop it is a scary one for domainers.

Photo | Flickr