Case No: FA2402002082767
Cynthia Shahian LLC v. Kurt Lopez / Lopez Kurt
Some idea of what really makes the world go round on the internet can be seen from a recent case concerning the celebrity Kardashians.
Interests connected with the Kardashians (a company called Cynthia Shahian LLC,) run a highly popular e-commerce website at www.kardashiankloset.com, based on their domain name <kardashiankloset.com>.
This “kloset” sells clothing and accessories that were once worn by and/or belonged to members of the well-known Kardashian-Jenner family, urged on by their tremendous following on social media.
But along came Kurt Lopez who set up a rival Kardashian Kloset site at www. kardashiankloset.shop, based on the domain name <kardashiankloset.shop>.
You will see that Lopez carried out his scheme by registering the new domain name under the umbrella “.shop” to rival the official domain name under “.com”. Not much of a difference!
This new site was politely described as “a rip-off” of the official www.kardashiankloset.com website because it looked like it, with all the glitz and glamour, and when you got to the site you would think it was an official Kardashian site!
This rival “unofficial“ site sells items claimed to be identical to those sold on the official www.kardashiankloset.com site—even using the same images of the items on white mannequins—but at deeply and suspiciously discounted prices. Were they knock-offs?
For instance, www.kardashiankloset.com sold vintage Versace leggings for $3,750, but www. kardashiankloset.shop tried to sell the same leggings for $938. Something suspicious there!
The “official” side made a claim to get the new rival domain name so they could control it and probably stop it altogether. And they won; the domain name was virtually the same as the official domain name, Lopez had no right to go using the Kardashian name for his own ends and the whole thing “from go to whoa” was in bad faith. Bingo! Case closed!
The Kardashians are now free to go on and promote their cast-off clothes and accessories without any trouble from the “rival” site.
You can read the case at https://www.adrforum.com/DomainDecisions/2082767.htm.
The Hon Neil Brown KC was a member of the 3 -person panel that unanimously decided the case. The other two members of the panel were Dawn Osborne and Alan L. Limbury (Chair).