Quebec Loses Quebec.com in Arbitration

The Government of Québec has lost a case against Anything.com, Ltd, the owner of Quebec.com at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Anything.com , Ltd purchased the disputed domain name back in 1998,according to whois records. The Panel concluded that Anything.com used the domain name to provide information and links to goods offered in Quebec.

” In the present case, Respondent has adopted a geographic indicator as its domain name and has sought to put it to good use in providing links to various information and commercial sites offering goods and services in or related to Quebec.

Respondent’s current website carried links to information services such as maps, directions and driving instructions and also links to sites offering hotel and flight bookings, other travel related businesses and a few other services such as immigration visas. It is true as Complainant says that some of the links do not relate specifically or exclusively to Quebec, but a fair reading of the website leaves no doubt that it is a site for goods and services offered in Quebec and in Montreal in particular.

The Panel’s overall assessment of the way that Respondent is using the Disputed Domain Name is that it is using the Disputed Domain Name in its geographic sense, i.e. that it deals with goods and services available in and specifically related to the region. If Respondent were pretending to be Complainant itself, if its website purported to offer governmental services, if it laid some claim to speak on behalf of the region or to be an authoritative voice on governmental or municipal matters, or if it sought to mislead Internet users as to the true nature of the site, the outcome may well have been different.”

Moreover, the Panel concluded that the domain name was not registered and used in bad faith:

“If this were its intention it has had 15 years to get up a website to suggest that it was the website of the Government of Quebec, but it has not done so. Its website makes no suggestion that it is the Government of Quebec, that it is modeling itself on the government, that it has any authority in governmental affairs or that it is in any other way trying to induce in a visitor the false notion that it is anything other than the commercial site that it plainly is.

Again, the Panel must also ask whether, if there is no direct evidence, are there nevertheless other matters from which it may be inferred that this was the intention of Respondent. The fact that Respondent appears to have kept strictly to promoting its own interests, namely commercial links, suggests that there are no such matters from which such an inference may be drawn.”

You can see here the decision