Presidium of the RF Supreme Arbitration Court has established an important precedent in the battle against unfair registrars of domain names. The court delivered the judgment under the rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and upheld Denso Corporation of Japan.

Denso Corporation of Japan that owns denso brand for marking electrical equipment (registered in more than 100 states worldwide including Russia) had been trying to defend its right for denso.com domain for a few years. Its owner was OOO DenSo (ДенСо in Russian) that was incorporated October 11, 2000 and bought out the domain on the next day after it from certain Denso Domain of the United States.

The Japanese company applied to WIPO Arbitration Center that considers the disputes related to the international Internet zones. The authority delivered its judgment November 13, 2003, ruling that DenSo had no legal rights for domain, using it instead to release news of other web-sites.

What’s more, the WIPO Arbitration ruled that DenSo was closely related to the well-known unfair registrar of domain names, OOO Servispoint.” In essence, the case in hand was cyber-squatters, the registrars of domain names that are consonant with/or spelled like the trademarks of well-known companies and that are resold to brand owners in the next effort.

But the Japanese company was unable to execute the WIPO resolution in Russia. Meanwhile, Russia’s DenSo filed a suit against Denso Corporation, seeking the acknowledgement of its right for denso.com domain. St. Petersburg Arbitration Court rejected the suit February 2, 2007 but the Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation upheld Russia’s company.

Yesterday, the Supreme Arbitration Court Presidium recalled those judgments and upheld the decision of the First Instance Court for the suit’s rejection. By its award, the Supreme Arbitration Court made clear that, when settling the Internet disputes, Russia that is the WIPO member should stick to the international practice established by that organization.