TASS wins international dispute for domain tass.com

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. The Arbitration and Mediation Centre of the World Intellectual Property Organization has considered a complaint from the Russian news agency TASS to the US owner of the domain tass.com and made a decision to transfer the domain to the Russian plaintiff. As expert Anton Sergo, of the legal firm Internet I Pravo (Internet Law), who represented TASS interests in the litigation has explained, although the brand name TASS is registered only in Russia, the judges ruled it was a sufficient reason for seeking protection in the domain zone .com. Another factor that complicated the affair was that TASS logos were registered in 1996-1998, while the domain name tass.com, in 1993. Yet the panel of WIPO judges agreed that the brand name TASS had begun to be widely used long before the registration of the domain name tass.com. Having studied the case the judges identified all criteria required for transferring the domain name to the plaintiff. Firstly, the domain name is an exact replica of the TASS trade mark, which causes a great deal of confusion; secondly, the defendant had no legal rights or legitimate interests regarding the disputed domain name; and thirdly, the domain name was registered and used in bad faith. "We are considering several options of using this domain. The availability of the domain .com will enable the agency to build up its presence in the Internet and to get closer to foreign audiences," TASS Director-General Sergey Mikhailov has said. The agency TASS was established in 1904. Its current name dates back to 1925. In the 1990s the agency’s name had the prefix ITAR (standing for Information Telegraph Agency of Russia). In September 2014 the agency restored its historical brand name familiar worldwide - TASS, which is not decoded. Read more