John Berryhill

Attorney John Berryhill has had many good days in the UDRP arena, scoring so many wins for his clients that, for more than a decade now, he has been one of the most sought after legal counselors in our industry. While every day that he helps the rightful owner of a domain name successfully defend his or her asset is a good day, Wednesday was an especially gratifying one as word arrived that Dr. Berryhill had won not one but two important UDRP cases on behalf of client Frank Schilling's company, Name Administration LLC.

As Andrew Allemann reported at DomainNameWire, in one of those cases involving the domain Klipz.com, Berryhill not only saved the domain for Schilling, he also succeeded in getting the panel to find the complainant, Aptus Tech (represented by Max Moskowitz, of Ostrolenk Faber LLP), guilty of 

reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH), something arbitrators are often reluctant to do even when the facts in a case warrant it, as they clearly did in this one. For domain investors, RDNH is nothing short of attempted theft and, even though the finding carries no criminal or civil financial penalties, it is certainly not a label any company or individual wants to be saddled with as it comes with the unmistakable stench of unethical behavior. 

While saving a domain for its rightful owner and winning a declaration of reverse domain name hijacking is enough good news to brighten any day, there was more to come for Dr. Berryhill and Mr. Schilling Wednesday. Soon after the Klipz.com decision was announced, Michael Berkens at TheDomains.com reported Dr. Berryhill's second win of the day, saving Spielwarenmesse.com ("toy fair" in German) for Mr. Schilling after German cooperative Spielwarenmesse eG had attempted to take away the domain through a UDRP filing. 

History has shown that professional  domain portfolio owners like Frank Schilling, Rick Schwartz, Nat Cohen and many others, are not going to let  spurious UDRP challenges go unchallenged. If you try to take something from them that you are not clearly entitled to, you'd better be ready for a fight - and if you don't have all of the facts on your side, be prepared to come away from the skirmish with permanent egg stains on your face as Aptus Tech is sporting today (and will continue to wear from this point forward). 

Egg on your face image from Bigstock