Indian ride-share and delivery app company fails to snag valuable domain through UDRP.

Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, which operates the Indian ride-hailing and delivery platform Rapido, has lost (pdf) a cybersquatting dispute it filed against rapido.com.

The registrant of rapido.com acquired the domain name in 2014. That was before Roppen Transportation existed and used the Rapido mark.

This means it could not show that the domain was registered in bad faith, absent something showing that the registrant was aware of the company’s plans.

Panelist John Swinson gave it a second chance to show this:

In the Procedural Order, the Complainant was given the opportunity to provide further evidence as to the Complainant’s reputation on or before the date the Respondent acquired the disputed domain name. The Panel noted in the Procedural Order that the Respondent had submitted that the Complainant was not page 6 incorporated when the Respondent acquired the disputed domain name. The Complainant provided no such evidence in response to the Procedural Order.

Thus, Swinson found in favor of the registrant on the issue of registration and use in bad faith.

Swinson did not consider whether this was a case of reverse domain name hijacking.

Roppen’s service currently uses the domain rapido.bike.

Ira Law Firm represented Roppen Transportation, and Chiever B.V. represented the domain name owner.