careerbulder.com

CareerBuilder, Inc. v. Amcore & Company For sale domains $250 or best offer

Case No. D2003-0872

The Complainant is CareerBuilder, Inc., of Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, represented by Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal of Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.

The Respondent is Amcore & Company For sale domains $250 or best offer of Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.

The disputed domain name <careerbulder.com> is registered with BulkRegister.com.

The Complaint was filed with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (the "Center") on November 3, 2003. On November 6, 2003, the Center transmitted by email to BulkRegister.com a request for registrar verification in connection with the domain name at issue. On November 6, 2003, BulkRegister.com transmitted by email to the Center its verification response. In response to a notification by the Center that the Complaint was administratively deficient, the Complainant filed an amendment to the Complaint on November 11, 2003. The Center verified that the Complaint, together with the amendment to the Complaint satisfied the formal requirements of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the "Policy"), the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the "Rules"), and the WIPO Supplemental Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the "Supplemental Rules").

In accordance with the Rules, paragraphs 2(a) and 4(a), the Center formally notified the Respondent of the Complaint, and the proceedings commenced on November 14, 2003. In accordance with the Rules, paragraph 5(a), the due date for Response was December 4, 2003. The Respondent did not submit any response. Accordingly, the Center notified the Respondent’s default on December 8, 2003.

The Center appointed Ross Carson as the sole panelist in this matter on December 15, 2003. The Panel finds that it was properly constituted. The Panel has submitted the Statement of Acceptance and Declaration of Impartiality and Independence, as required by the Center to ensure compliance with the Rules, paragraph 7.

The Complainant and its predecessors began to offer online service that allowed postings of job listings and searching services for employers and job seekers and has continuously used the trademark CAREERBUILDER, alone or in combination, to identify its services from 1996, to the present. (Annex 3 to the Complaint) The Complainant promotes its identity by heavily advertising its website address <Careerbuilder.com>, and has focused its advertising and promotional efforts since 1996, in maintaining consumer recognition of the CAREERBUILDER trademarks. (Annex 3 to the Complaint) The Complainant advertises through a wide range of media in the United States, including television, radio, print and Internet banner advertising. The Complainant has spent close to $200 million dollars in advertising and marketing expenses in promoting the CAREERBUILDER trademarks from 1996 to the present. The Complainant states that its website "www.careerbuilder.com" had 6.3 million unique visitors in August 2003. (Annex 3 to the Complaint)

The Complainant first started to use the trademark CAREERBUILDER, alone and in combination in the United States since as early as 1996, in advertising Complainant’s online job search services. The Complainant owns numerous trademark registrations for CAREERBUILDER alone or in combination in the United States, European Union, Mexico, Canada and Australia. (Annex 4 to the Complaint)

The Complainant transacts its business on the Internet primarily through its website "www.careerbuilder.com" CareerBuilder also owns and uses additional domain names which include the CAREERBUILDER trademark. For example:

<careerbuilder.com>;
<careerbuilder.org>;
<careerbuilderinc.com>;
<careerbuilderit.com>;
<careerbuilderpsa.com>;
<careerbuildermail.com>;
<careerbuilderinfo.com>;
<careerbuildernetwork.info>;
<thecareerbuildernetwork.info>.

The Complainant has succeeded in obtaining orders of transfer from the Center for two domain names, <careeerbuilder.com> and <carreerbuilder.com> that were ruled confusingly similar to the CAREERBUILDER trademarks. See CareerBuilder, LLC v.Azra Khan, WIPO Case No. D2003-0493, CareerBuilder, Inc. v. JohnZuccarini, WIPO Case No. D2002-0282 (Annex 6 to the Complaint). In these cases, panelists for the Center ruled that the respondents had no rights or legitimate interests in these domain names—both of which took advantage of common misspellings of the CAREERBUILDER trademarks – and that the domain names had been registered and used in bad faith.

On November 3, 2003, the Complainant brought a Complaint against the Registrant of the domain name in dispute. The Registrants name was (This Domain Is For Sale) Joshuathan Investments, Inc. of Belize. When the Case Manager contacted the Registrar for verification on November 6, 2003, the Case Manager was advised by the Registrar BulkRegister.com that the Registrant for the domain name in dispute was Amcore & Company For Sale domains $250 or best offer of Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. The Complainant filed an Amendment to the Complaint naming Amcore & Company For Sale domains $250 or best offer as the Respondent. The BulkRegister WHOIS attached as Annex 1 to the Amendment to the Complaint shows that the record of the domain name in dispute was updated on November 6, 2003, to name the current Registrant Amcore & Company For Sale domains $250 or best offer as the new Registrant. At the time that the domain name in dispute was registered to Joshuathan Investments, (Annex 1 to the Complaint), Amcore & Company was listed as the Technical and Administrative Contact for the domain name in dispute.

The Complainant submits that <careerbulder.com> is confusingly similar to the Complainant’s registered trademark CAREEBUILDER or combination trademark incorporating CAREERBUILDER. The Complainant further submits that the domain name in dispute is a misspelling of the Complainant’s trademark, the letter "i"is missing from the domain name in dispute. In CareerBuilder, LLC v. Azra Khan, WIPO Case No. D2003-0493, the Panel held the domain name <careeerbuilder.com> which, except for an extra "e" was identical to the trademark/service mark CAREERBUILDER, does not affect, in any material way, either the appearance or sound of the name.

The Complainant submits that the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name <careerbulder.com>. Complainant states that the Respondent is not known either as an individual, business or other organization by the name CAREERBULDER.COM.

The Respondent currently uses the domain name in dispute to link to a portal site, "www.top10sites.com," which permits Internet users to perform searches and purports to offer the domain name for sale. (See Annex 7.) At the bottom, right-hand corner of the Top10Sites.com home page, an e-mail link states, "This Domain Is For Sale. Click Here for Details." Clicking on the link permits Internet users to send electronic mail to the Respondent under the subject heading "Domain4Sale." The Top10Sites.com home page also includes links to numerous online gambling casino and adult-oriented websites, such as <freesexmovies.com>and <30topcasinos.com>, Complainant CareerBuilder has no relationship at all with any of these above-referenced gambling or pornographic websites, nor does it have any relationship with Respondent or the source, sponsor and/or endorser of the "www.top10sites.com" portal site.

The Complainant submits that the Respondent has no interest in the CAREERBULDER term other than reaping commercial gain from misleading consumers seeking CareerBuilder’s sites and diverting them to a commercial portal website--"www.top10sites.com"--that bears no relation to the CAREERBUILDER trademarks, includes links to online gambling casinos and adult-oriented websites, and thus is not a legitimate, non-commercial or fair use of domain names pursuant to paragraph 4 (c) (iii) of the Policy. See CareerBuilder, Inc. v. John Zuccarini,WIPO Case No. D2002-0282 (Annex 6 to the Complaint).

The Complainant submits that the Respondent has registered and is using the domain name in dispute in bad faith by intentionally attempting to attract, for commercial gain, Internet users to a website by creating a likelihood of confusion with the Complainant’s trademarks as to source, sponsorship, affiliation or endorsement of the Respondent’s website. The Complainant further submits based on the fact that Respondent registered a domain name which is a misspelling of Complainant’s trademarks, despite knowledge of Complainant’s rights, is evidence of bad faith registration pursuant to paragraph 4 (a) (iii) of the Policy. American Express Co. v. (This Domain is For Sale) Joshuathan Investments, Inc., FA 156647 (National Arbitration Forum, June 3, 2003).

The Respondent did not reply to the Complainant’s contentions.

Paragraph 15 (a) of the Rules instructs this Panel to "decide a complaint on the basis of the statements and documents submitted in accordance with the Policy, these rules and any rules and principles of law that it deems applicable."

In view of Respondent’s failure to submit a Response, the Panel shall decide this administrative proceeding on the basis of the Complainant’s undisputed representations pursuant to paragraph 14(b) of the Rules.

Paragraph 4(a) of the Policy requires that the Complainant must prove each of the following three elements to obtain an order that a domain name should be cancelled or transferred:

(1) the domain name registered by Respondent is identical or confusingly similar to a

trademark or service mark in which Complainant has rights: and

(2) the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain

name; and

(3) domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

The domain name <careerbulder.com> is virtually identical and confusingly similar to Complainant’s trademarks for CAREERBUILDER, alone or in combination, which have been registered and substantially used in relation to providing online job services. The domain name in dispute differs from the Complainant’s trademark CAREERBUILDER by the deletion of the letter "i" in the domain name in dispute and is confusingly similar to Complainant’s trademarks for or including CAREERBUILDER. See CareerBuilder, Inc. v. John Zuccarini, WIPO Case No. D2002-0282 (Annex 6 to the Complaint).

The Panel finds that the Complainant has proven that the domain name registered by the Respondent is confusingly similar to the Complainant’s trademark/service marks for or including CAREERBUILDER.

The Complainant submits that the Respondent was not known by or doing business under the trademark or trade name "CAREERBULDER" prior to registration of the domain name in dispute. The Respondent has not contested this submission. The Complainant further states that the Respondent is not a licensee of the Complainant, nor is Respondent otherwise authorized by Complainant to use the trademark CAREERBUILDER or any variation thereof.

The Panel finds that the Complainant has proven on a balance of probabilities that Respondent has no interest in the CAREERBULDER term other than reaping commercial gain from misleading consumers seeking CareerBuilder’s sites and diverting them to a commercial portal website --"www.top10sites.com"--that bears no relation to the CAREERBUILDER trademarks, includes links to online gambling casinos and adult-oriented websites, and thus is not a legitimate, non-commercial or fair use of domain names pursuant to paragraph 4 (c)(iii) of the Policy. See CareerBuilder Inc. v. John Zuccarini, WIPO Case No. D2002-0282 (Annex 6 to the Complaint).

The Panel finds that the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interest in respect of the domain name <careerbulder.com>.

Paragraph 4(b)(iv) of the Policy states that where a registrant, by using a domain name, intentionally attempts to attract, for commercial gain, Internet users to a website by creating a likelihood of confusion with the complainant’s mark as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation or endorsement of the registrant’s website, this constitutes evidence of bad faith registration and use.

Respondent registered, used and continues to use the domain name in dispute in order to misdirect Internet surfers looking for Complainant’s sites to another website--"www.top10sites.Com"-- for commercial gain. Top10Sites.com permits Internet users to perform web searches and purports to offer disputed domain names for sale. Top10Sites.com includes links to online gambling casinos and adult-oriented websites, such as <freesexmovies.com>. In using the domain name to redirect Internet users to "www.top10sites.com" by creating a likelihood of confusion with Complainant’s trademarks as to source, sponsorship, affiliation or endorsement of the registrant’s website, the Respondent is using the domain name in dispute in bad faith.

The Respondent registered a domain name that is a misspelling of Complainant’s mark. Based on the evidence, the Panel infers that Respondent was on notice of Complainant’s rights in the CAREERBUILDER trademarks when it registered the domain name. Registration of a domain name, despite knowledge of Complainant’s rights, is evidence of bad faith registration pursuant to paragraph 4(a)(iii) of the Policy. American Express Co. v. (This Domain Is For Sale) Joshuathan Investments, Inc., FA 154647 (National Arbitration Forum, June 3, 2003).

The Panel finds that the Complainant has proven that the domain name in dispute has

been registered and is being used in bad faith.

For all the foregoing reasons, in accordance with Paragraphs 4(i) of the Policy and 15 of the Rules, the Panel orders that the Domain Name <careerbulder.com> be transferred to the Complainant.