Mangels Industrial S.A., a Brazilian manufacturing firm, has been determined to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking concerning the domain name mangels.com.
The company previously owned the domain but allowed it to expire or possibly requested its cancellation, according to the registrar. Subsequently, a domain investor acquired the domain at auction in 2019.
Mangels Industrial S.A. attempted to repurchase the domain for approximately $950 last year, but the investor’s asking price was over $60,000. Dissatisfied with the price, the company pursued a legal claim to regain the domain, alleging bad faith on the part of the investor.
A three-member panel from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reviewed the case and found no evidence that the domain investor had targeted Mangels Industrial S.A. The panel noted that the name Mangels is used by other entities and is also a common surname, which undermined the claim of bad faith registration.
The panel’s ruling highlighted that the complainant’s attempt to regain the domain followed its failure to renew or possibly cancel its own registration. The panel found that the company, having had its offers to repurchase the domain rejected, chose to initiate legal action rather than negotiating further.
The panel’s decision stated:
“It is apparent that the Complainant failed to renew its own registration of the disputed domain name (and may even have requested that its registration be canceled), before seeking to have it reinstated after the Respondent had registered it. The Complainant appears to have made initial offers in the region of USD 950 to purchase the disputed domain name from the Respondent, but upon being informed of the Respondent’s asking price, it appears that the Complainant elected instead to commence this proceeding, asserting that the Respondent had registered and used the disputed domain name in bad faith.”
The ruling found no reasonable grounds for the claim that the domain investor acted in bad faith and characterized the complaint as a tactic to obtain the domain name without engaging in further negotiations.
Crepaldi Advogados Associados represented Mangels Industrial S.A., while the domain investor represented themselves in the proceedings.
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