Bakers Delight Undelighted by Domain Name

Complainant, Bakers Delight Holdings, is an Australian owned company established 27 years ago.  Complainant operates a bakery franchise, with over 600 bakeries in Australia and over 30 in New Zealand.  Complainant operates a website at www.bakersdelight.com.au.

Respondent created the disputed domain name, "bakersdelightlies.com" on June 22, 2007.  Responded used to be a franchisee of Complainant and uses the domain name to attack Complainant and, in particular, its treatment of franchisees.

While the disputed domain name does contain the Complainant's entire trademark, "Baker's Delight", it also contains at the end the word "lies".  For this reason, the Panel deemed the disputed domain name to fall into the category of so-called "sucks" cases (where a trademark is joined with a negative term).  A majority of panels dealing with "sucks" cases have found that a domain name can be confusingly similar to the trademark for various reasons, including because the domain name contains a trademark and a generic word.  However, some panels have found that these types of domain names are not confusing because it is obvious to Internet users that the Complainant would not use a domain name which consists of its trademark and a derogatory term.  The Panel in this case opined that "sucks" is a more forceful, obvious and derogatory term than "lies" and held to the majority view that the disputed domain was confusingly similar to the "Bakers Delight" mark.

Notwithstanding, the Panel denied the Complaint, holding that Complainant had failed to establish that Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name.  In so holding, the Panel found that the website did not have any commercial content and was dedicated to genuine criticism, with relevant non-commercial links, and nothing to establish that Respondent was making any commercial gain, from visitors or advertising or otherwise, or attempting to divert users looking for Complainant's site.  Bakers Delight Holdings Ltd. v. Andrew Austin, WIPO Case No. D2008-0006