21.11.08

The Supreme Arbitration Court (SAC) of Russia has concluded the now years-long proceedings concerning the denso.com domain. Yesterday, the court dismissed the lawsuit brought about by several St. Petersburg companies such as “Denso” and “Servicepoint,” and recognized the right of Japanese companies to the domain name.

Denso Corp. is a Japanesse company that owns the ‘Denso’ trademark for use in electrical equipment – and under international agreements, this ownership is recognized by hundreds countries around the world, including Russia. They have been trying to defend their right to the denso.com site for a few years.

The problems began in the spring of 2000, when Denso forgot to renew its registration, and the name was intercepted by a US company called Denso Domain, which then transferred ownership to a Russian consultancy company also named “Denso” in the same year. A year later, "Denso" handed the right to use the domain to “Servicepoint,” which took over administration of the domain.

The Japanese company appealed to the Mediation and Arbitration Center, a part of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which deals with disputes regarding international Internet zones in accordance with international rules. On November 13, 2003, the center ruled that Russian “DenSo” acted in bad faith. They, in fact, were cyber squatters - the registrars of domain names, congruent or overlapping with the names of well-known brands or trademarks.

However, the Japanese company was unable to apply the rulings of WIPO in Russia. The Russian "DenSo" filed a lawsuit against the Japanese Denso Corporation, demanding recognition of the Russian “DenSo’s” right to use the "denso.com" domain name. On February 2, 2007, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region turned down the lawsuit, but that ruling was overturned in an appeals court. The final ruling came from the Supreme Arbitration Court yesterday, which reinstated the first ruling, citing the fact that Russia, as a participant in the WIPO, must take into account the international practice of dispute resolution as formed by the organization.

Denso is not the first foreign company that has been involved in suits over domain names with Russian owners. Earlier companies such as Eastman Kodak, Gillette, Google, and Microsoft also won domain disputes in Russian courts. All these cases were about domains registered in the Russian domain zone (.ru).

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Source: website of the Supreme Arbitration Court