New decision - Würth International AG v Zhu Xumei [2021] NZDNC 1426
The complainant is a company belonging to the globally active Würth Group. The group is a wholesaler of fasteners, screws and screw accessories, dowels, chemicals, electronic and electromechanical components, furniture and construction fittings, tools, machines, installation material, automotive hardware, inventory management, storage and retrieval systems.
The complainant claimed that the respondent registered the domain name - Wuerth - intending to sell it for profit noting that the respondent had made an unsolicited offer to sell the domain name to the Würth’s IT service company for USD 2000.
The expert determined that this was an unfair registration and ordered the transfer of the domain name to Würth for the following reasons:
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the complainant had rights in respect of the trade mark, “Würth”;
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the spelling of “Wuerth” is a recognised transcription of the spelling of “Würth” (‘ue’ is often used to replace the umlaut in ‘ü’), and as “Wuerth” is the dominant element of the domain name it qualified as either identical, or least similar, to the complainant’s mark;
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the complainant had provided sufficient evidence to show the respondent had registered the domain name for the purpose of sale for profit.
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