New Venue To Block ".Com" Domain Names Selling Counterfeits?

In what is thought to be a first Swiss ruling of its kind, the Geneva Court of Justice recently ordered a major US based registrar of ".com" domain names to place on registry-hold multiple ".com" domain names selling counterfeit goods (ACJC/335/2015). This innovative precedent gives Swiss trademark owners a new venue to block third parties' websites infringing their trademark rights worldwide.

The Claimant, a company active in the luxury goods industry, requested from the Geneva Court interim measures against six domain name holders based on an infringement of the Swiss Trademark Protection Act. All of the domain holders were individuals having a false address in China and operating websites that reproduced the Claimant's verbal trademark in their domain names and offered items for sale openly described as replicas of the Claimant's products. While dismissing the request for ex parte measures, the Court granted the interim measures and ordered the US based registrar