Ambien manufacturer Sanofi has reclaimed 21 domain names following World Intellectual Property Organisation Arbitration and Mediation Center ruling.
The disputed domain names included multiple variations of the Ambien trademark combined with terms such as ‘buy online’ and ‘withoutprescription’.
Sanofi holds trademarks to the sleep aid drug across various jurisdictions including the EU and the US, as well as various domain names such as ambien.com, ambien.eu and ambien.us.
Sole panellist Marilena Comănescu said that the domains were “confusingly similar” to Sanofi’s trademark for Ambien.
She said: “Numerous Uniform Domain Name Dispute-Resolution Policy panels have considered that the addition of generic or descriptive words to trademarks in a domain name is not sufficient to escape the finding of confusing similarity and does not change the overall impression of the domain name as being connected to the complainant’s trademark.”
Further, Comănescu recognised that the domains were filed in bad faith, as Sanofi has held trademark registrations for Ambien since 1993, and that it is “distinctive and well known worldwide particularly in the pharmaceutical field”.
“The respondent is using without permission Sanofi’s widely-known trademark in order to redirect Internet users looking for the Sanofi’s goods to get traffic to its web portal and to obtain commercial gain from the false impression created.”
Comănescu ruled that all 21 domain names be cancelled.
[Source:-IPPro]
