Attorney John Berryhill has foiled another reverse hijacking attempt, perpetrated this time by a company called Hero of Switzerland who tried to use the WIPO process to steal the domain Hero.com from its rightful owner. The complainant is a food products company that 

Attorney John Berryhill

uses the word Hero on some of their product lines, but are probably better known in the U.S. for their Beech-Nut brand. 

"Hero" is clearly a generic word and it is used by many different companies to market their products and services. Still, the Swiss company thought they were somehow entitled to the Hero.com domain even though it  belonged to someone else who has been using it in their business for well over a decade now.

The current owner, The Heroic Sandwich of Berkeley, California, used Hero.com as the name of one of New York City's first internet cafes in mid 1990s and after that venture closed, continued to use it as the name for a consulting service. It was clear that Heroic had every right to own the domain and should not have had to spend money fending off the pirates who tried to steal it. 

Fortunately the Hero.com owner made a good choice in enlisting the help of one of the industry's foremost attorneys in Dr. Berryhill who made mincemeat of the complainant's argument in winning a reverse hijacking decision against them. You can read all of the details from the WIPO decision here. 

This case is another reminder that there are bad actors on both sides of the playing field. We all know there are trademark infringers operating in the domain space who have hurt the image of the entire industry, but there are also corporate entities who grossly overreach the limited bounds of their mark, and resort to attempted theft as happened here. These cases deserve to get as much publicity as the ones that cast a negative light on domainers. Respecting the rights of others is a two way street. 
(Posted August 15, 2008)