The Domain Name Spirit...

Complainants are the producers and distributors of a number of spirits including the Scotch whisky brand "Chivas Regal", established as early as 1909.  In 2006, Complainants sold their whisky Chivas Regal in over 90 countries and, from December 2001 to December 2007, over 225,000,000 liters of Chivas Regal were sold worldwide.  As a result of extensive and long use, the name Chivas Regal has become widely-known worldwide and represents a goodwill and reputation of tremendous value to the Complainants, who own 162 trademark registrations in respect of "Chivas Regal".

Respondent has a pattern of cybersquatting and registered the disputed domain name, "chivasregal.com", in 2004 and used it in connection with a website providing links for third parties' products including products directly competing with those of Complainants.

Ordering transfer of the disputed domain name to Complainants, the Panel held that Respondent had clearly registered and used the disputed domain name in bad faith.  As to bad faith registration, the Panel held it inconceivable that Respondent registered the domain without knowledge of Complainants and their marks, given the high distinctiveness of the Chivas Regal marks and the high profile of Complainants dating back to 1909.  This is particularly so given the fact that Respondent used the disputed domain name to provide links including direct competitors of Complainant and the fact that the name "Chivas Regal" is in itself not descriptive of Complainants' products.

As to bad faith use, the Panel held that Respondent was, in all likelihood, trying to divert traffic intended for the Complainants' website to its own for the purpose of earning click-through revenues from Internet users searching for the Complainants' website, by fully incorporating the Chivas Regal marks into the domain name and using the website as a parking website.  Chivas Brothers Limited et al. v. Demand Domains, Inc., WIPO Case No. D2007-1789.