Domain name swatch.ru Tenth Arbitrazh Appellate Court confirms decision in favour of Swatch
In a decision rendered on 7 February 2011, the Russian Tenth Arbitrazh Appellate Court confirmed the position taken by the Court of the Region of Moscow according to which the registrant of swatch.ru was prohibited from using said domain name and ordered to transfer the domain to Swatch Ltd.
Russian legislation allows owners of well known brands to protect their rights also in the Internet. In particular, if a cybersquatter's sole purpose is – as it is usually the case – to retain a certain domain name in order to resell it and, by doing so, to hinder the trademark (and company name) owner to use its protected trademark (and company name) in the Internet, such cybersquatter’s activity qualifies as an abuse of rights. More and more courts in the Russian Federation agree to this point of view. It is a policy of Swatch not to tolerate cybersquatting of its trademarks and to take legal action against all third parties that infringe Swatch trademarks by using them for domain registrations.