UDRP Volkswagen lost UDRP against the domain My-GTi.com

[Arpit131]

Automotive manufacturer, Volkswagen, filed a UDRP against the owner of the domain My-GTi.com.

Claiming rights to the GTi part, the car maker giant must have been certain that the outcome would be a walk in the park.

The Respondent registered the domain to share his experiences with GTI cars; a term that is adopted by several car manufacturers to indicate a sporty car model.

For example, the following cars all use the term GTI – not just Volkswagen:

• Maserati 3500 GTI
• Peugeot 205 GTI
• Suzuki Swift GTi
• Volkswagen Golf GTI

The Respondent pointed out the reason behind the domain’s registration, along with the fact that the domain does not contain the VOLKSWAGEN mark, as it’s not supposed to be specific to that brand.

Source

 

[Kuffy]

I hope he got some compensation.

GTI = "Grand Theft Internet"

 

[deez007]

Nice....!

I love it when domain owners stick it to large corporations who assume they can bully the domain owner into submission.

 

[Kuffy]

A Grand Tourer Injection (from Italian Gran Turismo Iniezione) - almost always abbreviated to GTI or GTi - is a fuel-injection car model variant. Traditionally used for Grand Tourer cars, the term is now applied to various hot hatchbacks, even though they do not have the luxury traditionally associated with Grand Tourers.

The 1961 Maserati 3500 GTI is the first car to use the GTI name that was later made famous in 1976 with the Volkswagen Golf GTI and also by the Peugeot 205 GTi launched in 1984.

Maserati is owned by Fiat/Chrysler, so I don't know why VW think they have exclusive rights to the initials.

 

[Maverick.au]

Automotive manufacturer, Volkswagen, filed a UDRP against the owner of the domain my-gti.com

Volkswagen have again filed a UDRP against me not six months after losing this one claiming that they have new information except nothing has changed on the website and everything "new" they have introduced was known last time. This time one of the partners of the law firm is involved.

The first filing I put forward my argument and won which should have been the end of it. This second filing with no new evidence feels like Volkswagen want to bully me into submission and they will continue to file until they get a ruling that suits them or I give up.

The registration in bad faith for .COM domains applies at the time of registration and not use and I have already proven that it was registered in good faith. The claims they made about content on the website from years after registration have nothing to with the initial registration.

Another domain that I have and was planning to turn into a technical forum vwgolf.tech is now listed as well but they were aware of this when they filed the last complaint.

More information is on my website along with the previous case.

 

[Silentptnr]

Volkswagen have again filed a UDRP against me not six months after losing this one claiming that they have new information except nothing has changed on the website and everything "new" they have introduced was known last time. This time one of the partners of the law firm is involved.

The first filing I put forward my argument and won which should have been the end of it. This second filing with no new evidence feels like Volkswagen want to bully me into submission and they will continue to file until they get a ruling that suits them or I give up.

The registration in bad faith for .COM domains applies at the time of registration and not use and I have already proven that it was registered in good faith. The claims they made about content on the website from years after registration have nothing to with the initial registration.

Another domain that I have and was planning to turn into a technical forum vwgolf.tech is now listed as well but they were aware of this when they filed the last complaint.

More information is on my website along with the previous case.

Welcome to NamePros. Sorry to hear that they are harrassing you again. I can't see where anything could change the outcome. Best of luck.

 

[Maverick.au]

The decision has just been published and I am retaining my-gti.com and vwgolf.tech and it appears that any attempts to refile by Volkswagen will be more difficult.

I can't link to the decision directly but copy the following into your navigation bar.

udrp.adr.eu/adr/decisions/decision.php?dispute_id=101516