Eurid’s ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) court is going to be kept busy in coming months.
Its first decision in the case of pst.eu has already been published with the ADR adjudicator finding no fault in the initial registration.
The basis for the decision is quite worrying:
. Taking into consideration the provisions of articles 10.1 and 10.2 of the Commission Regulation (EC) No. 874/2004 of 28th April 2004; article 12.3 of the same Regulation; article 14 of the same Regulation, according to the documentation filed with the Case File it is inferred that PST Business Solutions VV is owner of the trademark registered b the Benelux Trademarks Office “PST” nº 0779280, with publication date 01-01-2006; 2. Bearing in mind that although the Complainant has filed an opposition against the aforementioned trademark, according to the documentation filed by EURid such an opposition has finalized, without any statement that the trademark has been rejected; 4. Bearing in mind that PST Business Solutions has applied for the domain name on December 7, 2006 at 11:01:21.274 h. and Peripheral Systems Technology B.V. has applied for it on December 7, 2006 at 1:07:59.072 hr.; 4. Bearing in mind that the Registry shall register the domain name on the first come, first served basis, as per article 14 of the Commission Regulation (EC) No. 874/2004; 5. Bearing in mind that it is not realized that the Decision made by the Registry conflicts with the European Union Regulations (ADR Rules B (1) 11. d. (1) 2.), I decide to reject the claim and confirm the decision made by the Registry.
So despite the fact that Peripheral Systems Technology have contested the other companys trademark, eurid are still willing to allow them to trade under that domain name until such time as the trademark dispute is resolved, simply because they registered it first! Worrying indeed.