An American company vs. a cybersquatter: another domain dispute successfully settled

Lawyers of the Law Firm "YUST" – Partner, Advocate Artem Kukin, Associate Partner, Advocate Alexander Bolomatov, Advocate Denis Shumskiy and Lawyer Natalia Gornostay – assisted Curves International Inc. (hereinafter – Curves), a large American company, whose network of fitness clubs includes over 10000 facilities in 85 countries, in protecting its title to a trademark illegally used by a city of Kazan resident in the Internet.

Without any consent from Curves, he used the word CURVES, identical to the trademark of the company, in the domain name curves.ru. The Curves International Inc. network of fitness centers includes over 10000 facilities in 85 countries and is widely known.

For protection of its title, Curves International Inc. filed with the Court of Arbitration of the Republic of Tatarstan a claim against the registrar of the domain. The registrar used it for offers of services in relation to which said trademark had been registered – exercises of physical training and fitness, education and consulting services in the area of physical training. The domain was used for redirecting not to the website of the title owner, but to that of another organization, whose domain was also administered by the respondent.

Having analyzed the types of services and goods in relation to which the trademark had been registered in the name of Curves International Inc., the Court concluded that there was a danger of confusing the company and the network of fitness centers for women of another organization. Moreover, there was a possibility to confuse the consumers about the identity of the person rendering the services.

The case consideration resulted in the following: the Court of Arbitration of the Republic of Tatarstan prohibited the use of the trademark in the domain name, exacted monetary compensation form the respondent and obligated him to publish this court decision in one of the leading Russian health and fitness magazines.

The domain is currently assigned to the company-title owner.