Conservative TV personality Glenn Beck filed a high-profiled domain dispute against Isaac Eiland-Hall over the domain name glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com.
According the UDRP, Beck had to prove three things to the arbitrator in order the get the domain name from Eiland-Hall:
1. That the domain name was confusingly similar to Glenn Beck’s trademark (i.e. Glenn Beck)
2. That the domain name’s registrant, Isaac Eiland-Hall, did not have rights or legitimate interests in the domain name.
3. That the domain was registered and used in bad faith
Frederick Abbot, the arbitrator for the dispute, determined that the domain name was in fact confusingly similar to the Glenn Beck mark. However, he found that the original domain registrant had legitimate interests when registering the domain name. Abbott additionally stated that they would not issue a ruling regarding registration and use in bad faith because the second requirement of the UDRP was not met. He did add that if a ruling on the third point had been issued, it would likely not have been in Glenn Beck’s favor.
In the ruling, Abbot stated: “Respondent appears to the Panel to be engaged in a parody of the style or methodology that Respondent appears genuinely to believe is employed by Complainant in the provision of political commentary, and for that reason Respondent can be said to be making a political statement. This constitutes a legitimate non-commercial use of Complainant’s mark under the Policy.
After the dispute judgment was announced, Abbott said that the issue of the website possibly being defamatory would be left up to the courts to decide. However, after fighting and winning the domain dispute, Eiland-Hall voluntarily handed the domain name over to Glenn Beck as he said he reached his objectives with the website.
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