The Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA) has ruled in favour of PropertyGuru, regarding the ownership of the domain name “propertyguru.com.my”.
The ruling came after AllProperty Media Pte Ltd (the owner of PropertyGuru) filed a complaint against the registration and use of the domain name by Think Media Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian company owned by iProperty, in May 2011.
Three panellists appointed by KLRCA ruled that iProperty’s propertyguru.com.my domain name is identical and confusingly similar with the trademark of the complainant, PropertyGuru.
“The panel appointed by KLRCA has clearly ruled that we are the rightful owners of propertyguru.com.my and that iProperty had acted in bad faith in relation to this,” said Steve Melhuish, Chief Executive of PropertyGuru Group.
The panellists also ruled that PropertyGuru has established goodwill and reputation with end users and real estate developers with the PropertyGuru trademark in Malaysia since mid-2008.
They said that the registration and use by iProperty of home-guru.com.my, which is similar to homeguru.com.my, belonging to HomeGuru Sdn Bhd, further supports an inference of bad faith by iProperty in using and registering the propertyguru.com.my domain.
Additionally, they said that iProperty has failed to demonstrate any rights and legitimate interests in the propertyguru.com.my domain name. Thus, iProperty was found to have acted in bad faith and was requested to transfer the domain back to PropertyGuru by 4 August 2011.
“We are delighted that justice has been served and that we can continue to focus on providing the best possible service to our end users and advertisers,” said Melhuish.
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