The ruling on the Valloni.com domain name dispute case has been finalized, and the complaint request has been rejected

Recently, the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the World Intellectual Property Organization has made a ruling on the Valloni.com domain name dispute case, rejecting the request of the complainant Lucien William Valloni, and did not find that there was reverse domain name hijacking.

Lucien William Valloni is a Swiss lawyer who has made great achievements in the fields of sports law and dispute resolution. In 2021, he founded the Valloni Attorneys at Law law firm, with the official website domain name valloni.ch. In 2023-2024, he successfully registered the VALLONI trademark in Switzerland and the European Union.

The Valloni.com domain name, the focus of the dispute, was originally registered by Valloni, but in 2012, due to the bankruptcy of the registrar, he did not receive a renewal reminder, resulting in the invalidation of the domain name registration. Since then, the domain name has been registered by a third party and acquired by domain name investment company NameFind Cayman Islands Ltd. in 2021 (the company is a branch of GoDaddy's NameFind in the Cayman Islands.) The domain name is currently for sale at a price of 13,415.38 Swiss francs.

Valloni believes that through his long-term activities in the professional field, his surname Valloni has unregistered trademark rights, and the domain name Valloni.com is exactly the same as his VALLONI trademark. He accused NameFind of having no legal rights to the domain name, registering and using the domain name is malicious speculation, and trying to sell it back to him at a high price.

NameFind countered that the company's business involves the acquisition and resale of domain names composed of common or common words. "Valloni" is a common surname and a word in the Italian dictionary. They acquired the domain name in the normal course of business, earlier than the registration time of the Valloni trademark. At that time, they did not know Valloni, and there was no malicious targeting. They also accused Valloni of reverse domain name hijacking.

After hearing, the panel held that Valloni failed to prove the distinctiveness of his surname as an unregistered trademark, and NameFind's acquisition of the domain name was a normal business, without any malicious registration or use. This ruling clarified the rights and interests of both parties and provided a reference example for similar domain name disputes.