MILTON KEYNES. England, September 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Global domain nameregistrar and online brand protection company, Safenames, has successfullyrecovered the domain name, "gushansen.com", for the three-time World PokerTour champion, Gus Hansen, using the Uniform Resolution Dispute Process(UDRP). Although Hanson did not have a registered trademark on his personalname at the time of the filing, Safenames was able to demonstrate that thedomain name was registered in bad faith. Safenames proved that the defendantinfringed on Hansen's common law mark, his famous personal name, because thedomain was used in a manner that was publically recognizable to Mr. Hansen.

Working closely with Mr. Hansen's representatives, the Safenames legalteam filed the UDRP with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)in Geneva, Switzerland against Yevgen Kudashov. Safenames demonstrated thatthe registrant was effectively creating "confusion" with the public,profiting from and acting in bad faith in his registration of gushansen.com.And, that Mr. Kudashov went to great lengths in an attempt to fool the publicinto believing that he was actually Hansen by creating an email address thatcontained the Mr. Hansen's nickname "Gus the Great Dane" which was used asthe WHOIS administrative contact.

The WIPO Panellist found in favor of Gus Hansen, concluding that Mr.Kudashov, had no rights or legitimate interests in the domain and the namewas registered and used in bad faith; ultimately ruling that the domain nameshould be transferred to Hansen, although the domain name was registered overfive years ago by Kudashov.

Safenames Head Counsel, Prudence Malinki said following the decision, "Weare very pleased that Safenames was able to win this dispute for Mr. Hansen.I believe that that this ruling will pave the way for other famousindividuals and celebrities to recover domain names registered to thirdparties who are profiting from registering domains that contain their famouspersonal names."

Visit:

http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2009/d2009-0950.html toreview the full WIPO decision.

Safenames Ltd

Safenames, http://www.safenames.net, is a leading global domain nameregistration company that specializes in corporate domain portfoliomanagement, online trademark monitoring and domain dispute services. Thecompany is headquartered in Milton Keynes, England with regional offices inVienna, Virginia, and Brisbane, Australia. Safenames is a privately heldcompany founded in 1997 and became ICANN accredited in 2002.

SOURCE Safenames Ltd