An Australian man has been ordered to hand over his Rackspace.xyz domain name to Rackspace Hosting this week.
The domain was registered with GoDaddy by Russell Harrower in July, and used to launch an online directory of billiard halls in Australia on Dec. 11, 2014.
Rackspace Hosting filed the complaint with the National Arbitration Forum in November, and claimed that the domain name was identical and confusingly similar to its name which has been trademarked since 2000.
Harrower offered to sell the domain to Rackspace for $5,000 US, and sue the company and ICANN if the domain was turned over to Rackspace. “He also threatens to use his influence in the social media should Complainant launch transfer proceedings in relation to the disputed domain name,” the complaint said.
The panel agreed with Rackspace that Harrower registered the domain in bad faith, and the domain was ordered to be transferred on Monday.
In a post on his website “russellharrower.com”, Harrower said that Rackspace has “two options.”
“Either go away or buy the domain for the on the table price of $5k, it is going to be better than the $50k I could be seeking from them due to mental and health reasons,” he said.
.XYZ was delegated to the DNS Root Zone in February 2014 and is managed by CentralNic.
This article originally appeared at:
http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/rackspace-wins-domain-dispute-australian-man-forced-hand-rackspace-xyz
