Decisión del Panel Administrativo nº D2012-2256 of WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, February 14, 2013 (case St Andrews Links Ltd v. Nial Chapman / Blue Square E-business Ltd and St Andrews International Private Members Golf Club Limited)
| Resolution Date | February 14, 2013 |
| Issuing Organization | WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center |
| Decision | Complaint denied |
| Dominio | Generic Domains |
The Complainant is St Andrews Links Ltd of St Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, represented by Nixon Peabody, LLP, United States of America.
The Respondents are Nial Chapman/Blue Square E-business Ltd of Dundee, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; and St Andrews International Private Members Golf Club Limited of St Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, represented by Jirehouse Capital, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The disputed domain names [standrewsigc.com] and [standrewsinternationalgolfclub.com] are registered with 1&1 Internet AG (the “Registrar”).
The Complaint was filed with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (the “Center”) on November 15, 2012. At this point, the only disputed domain name was [standrewsigc.com]. On November 15, 2012, the Center transmitted by email to the Registrar a request for registrar verification in connection with the disputed domain name. On November 16, 2012, the Registrar transmitted by email to the Center its verification response confirming that the Respondent Nial Chapman/Blue Square E-business Ltd is listed as the registrant and providing the contact details. In response to a notification by the Center that the Complaint was administratively deficient, the Complainant filed an amended Complaint on November 20, 2012.
The Center verified that the Complaint together with the amended Complaint satisfied the formal requirements of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Policy” or “UDRP”), the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Rules”), and the WIPO Supplemental Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the “Supplemental Rules”).
In accordance with the Rules, paragraphs 2(a) and 4(a), the Center formally notified the Respondent Nial Chapman/Blue Square E-business Ltd of the Complaint, and the proceedings commenced on November 21, 2012. On November 20, 2012, an email communication from a “Keith” was received by the Center stating “I am no longer working at Blue Square. My workload has been passed on to colleagues and so please contact either […] Conway ([…]@blue2.co.uk) for technical issues or Nial Chapman ([…]@blue2.co.uk) for anything else”. The Center acknowledged receipt of this email on the same day.
In accordance with the Rules, paragraph 5(a), the due date for the Response was December 11, 2012. The Respondent Nial Chapman/Blue Square E-business Ltd did not submit a Response by that date and accordingly, the Center notified the Respondent’s default on December 12, 2012.
The Center appointed Jon Lang as the sole panelist in this matter on December 17, 2012. The Panel finds that it was properly constituted. The Panel has submitted the Statement of Acceptance and Declaration of Impartiality and Independence, as required by the Center to ensure compliance with the Rules, paragraph 7.
Before a decision was made by the Panel, a letter was received by the Center (on January 8, 2013) from Jirehouse Capital acting on behalf of St Andrews International Private Members Golf Club Limited stating that the dispute domain name [standrewsigc.com] is owned by their client and that their client intends to defend the proceedings. An extension of time was requested to January 15, 2013, so that an application could be made to intervene in the proceedings and a Response lodged. In response, the Panel, in the interests of enabling a decision to be made on the best available record, made a Procedural Order dated January 9, 2013 (“Procedural Order No. 1”), granting an extension of time to January 15, 2013, for the Respondent to submit any statement or evidence it may wish to make in response to the Complainant’s claims. The Response was to include, (further to the assertions made in the communication of January 8, 2013 referred to earlier), evidence of the relationship (if any) between the named Respondent “Nial Chapman/Blue Square E-business Ltd” and any entity (such as St Andrews International Private Members Golf Club Limited) claiming to be the beneficial owner of or have an interest in the disputed domain name [standrewsigc.com]. The Panel noted in the Procedural Order No.1 that any final determination of the proper Respondent(s) will be solely a matter in its discretion. Consequential orders were also made, including an order allowing the Complainant to submit a Sur-Reply by no later than January 21, 2013.
On January 10, 2013, a letter was received from a company called Blue Square Design Limited, a successor company to the Respondent Blue Square E-business Ltd, stating that St Andrews International Private Members Golf Club Limited is its client and that it had purchased various domain names on their behalf. Attached to the letter was an invoice listing four domain names that had been purchased - [standrewsigc.com], [standrewsinternationalgolfclub.com], [standrewsigc.co.uk] and [standrewsinternationalgolfclub.co.uk].
On January 15, 2013, a Response was submitted on behalf of St Andrews International Private Members Golf Club Limited followed, the next day, by the submission of a ”Notice of defence and counterstatement”. This Notice had been filed in the trade mark registry proceedings referred to in the Responses (being in relation to St Andrews International Private Members Golf Club Limited trade mark application No. 2626277 and the Complainant’s opposition thereto).
The letter of January 10, 2013 from Blue Square Design Limited prompted the Complainant’s attorneys to seek to add three additional domain names (not included in the Complaint) to the proceedings, namely [standrewsinternationalgolfclub.com], [standrewsigc.co.uk] and [standrewsinternationalgolfclub.co.uk] and a (further) amended Complaint (the “Amended Complaint”) was submitted on January 16, 2013. The covering letter of the same date, whilst explaining the addition of the three additional domain names, made clear that, as far as the Complainant was concerned, the Respondent remained the listed registrant alone, namely Blue Square E-business Ltd.
In the light of the Response submitted on behalf of St Andrews International Private Members Golf Club Limited and also the Amended Complaint seeking to add to the proceedings three additional domain names, the Panel made a further Procedural Order on January 21, 2013 (“Procedural Order No. 2”). Procedural Order No. 2, inter alia, refused the addition of the domain names [standrewsinternationalgolfclub.co.uk] and [standrewsigc.co.uk] to these proceedings on the basis that disputes concerning abusive registration and use of domain names in the “.co.uk” space are not governed by the UDRP. However, in relation to the domain name [standrewsinternationalgolfclub.com] the Panel, mindful of the administrative efficiency to be gained by considering that domain name in these proceeding, provisionally accepted its inclusion, (subject to verification of registrant details by the concerned Registrar).
Given the (voluminous) Response submitted on behalf of St Andrews International Private Members Golf Club Limited and the addition (on a provisional basis) of the domain name [standrewsinternationalgolfclub.com], the Panel extended time for the Complainant to provide a Sur-Reply to January 25, 2013 and the Respondent was given an opportunity to submit, by January 30, 2013 a further a statement or evidence in response to the Complainant’s additional claims in its Amended Complaint.
Following Procedural Order No. 2, the Center transmitted by email to the Registrar a request for registrar verification in connection with the disputed domain name [standrewsinternationalgolfclub.com] on January 21, 2013. On January 22, 2013, the Registrar transmitted by email to the Center its verification response confirming that the Respondent Nial Chapman/Blue Square E-business Ltd is listed as the registrant and providing the contact details. The Complainant submitted a Sur-Reply on January 25, 2013 and a Respondent’s Statement was submitted on behalf of St Andrews International Private Members Golf Club Limited on January 30, 2013. As a result further correspondence on behalf of the Complainant (its letter of January 30, 2013 objecting, inter alia, to the scope of the Respondent’s Statement) and on behalf of St Andrews International Private Members Golf Club Limited, (its letter of January 31, 2013 objecting to the Complainant’s letter of January 30, 2013), the Panel made Procedural Order No. 3 on February 1, 2013 accepting the Respondent’s Statement of January 30, 2013 and providing, inter alia, for the Complainant to submit a further Sur-Reply by February, 7, 2013, which it duly did (on February 7, 2013).
The following is taken from a document entitled ”Background and History of the Complainant”, at Annex 3 of the Amended Complaint. Its precise content may be disputed by the Respondent, but the Panel borrows from it only to provide general background rather than to found any decision it makes.
St Andrews Links in the town of St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, and is recognized worldwide as the "Home of Golf". Golf has been played there since the 15th century. The first golf course on St Andrews Links is now known as The Old Course. The Old Course has long held a leading position in international golf course rankings and is widely considered one of the finest, and most famous and traditional courses in the world. In 1974 the St Andrews Links Trust (the “Trust”) was established by an act of Parliament to ensure that St Andrews Links would continue to be run as a public park and place of...
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