The
"Crown in Right of the State of Tasmania trading as Tourism
Tasmania" (the Complainant) at a cost of $3,000 to Tasmanian
taxpayers has made the Complaint below to the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and
Mediation Center in Geneva Switzerland regarding the domain
Discover-Tasmania.com.au
The Dispute is to be determined by a 3 member WIPO Panel.
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The
Complaint alleges that the domain name in dispute is confusingly
similar to an Australian registered trade mark of the Tasmanian
Government "TASMANIA Discover
your natural state", that the Government has
somehow achieved exclusive common law rights to the term
"Discover Tasmania"
and as such, the Respondent has no rights to use the domain name
and is using the domain name in bad faith by tarnishing the reputation
of the Complainant.
The Complainant needs to prove all these things in order to win. |
The
Respondent has responded by denying and refuting the allegations
and certain statements of fact by the Complainant. The Respondent
says that Complainant brings upon itself any perceived tarnishment
as all the Respondent does is expose the Complainant.
Pursuant to the Rules
(PDF) of the dispute (15(e)), the Respondent can and has made
substantial allegations against the Complainant and has requested
the WIPO Panel to make a finding of Bad
Faith, Abuse of Process, Harassment and Attempted Reverse Domain
Name Hijacking against the Complainant.
Included in those allegations the Respondent alleges that the
Complainant has made false statements of
fact, has manufactured evidence, has produced into evidence an
incomplete or false or misleading record of a meeting, has registered
a Tasmanian Business Name in bad faith and is using it to maintain
a complaint to the WIPO, has willfully made allegations spuriously
or recklessly and that the Complainant was well aware that its
Complaint was ill founded.
Further the Respondent alleges that the
Complainant via its Tourism Tasmania statutory corporation, made
a bogus job offer to the Respondent and consequently is in possible
contravention of the Commonwealth Trade Practices Act. |
THE
COMPLAINT of 14/02/03
PDF Document 270k
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THE
RESPONSE of 16/03/03
PDF Document 105k |
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Since
filing its Complaint (where
it is imperative that the Complainant establishes rights in the
term Discover Tasmania), the Complainant
has altered components of the source code of its webpages to include
the term Discover Tasmania where it did not previously exist.
Consequently the Respondent alleges the Complainant is altering
material evidence available to the WIPO Panel in
order to unfairly advance its Complaint prior
to the adjudication and thereby adding evidence as to the bad
faith of the Complainant.
FURTHER
STATEMENTS of 28/03/03
PDF Document 20k |
| Please
Note, that due to the substantial size of the associated annexes
to the above pleadings, they are not available for downloading. |
THE
DECISION IS IN - THE MAFIA LOST
THE COMPLAINT BY THE
Crown in Right of the State of Tasmania trading as Tourism Tasmania
HAS BEEN DENIED
THE RESPONDENT RETAINS THE DISPUTED DOMAIN NAME
The Complainant failed to prove to the Panel that it has or
had exclusive rights in the "brand" Discover Tasmania.
The Panel found that the Respondent has a legitimate interest
in the disputed domain name in that it was relevant to persons
seeking to "Discover Tasmania" and that the Respondent
is not using the disputed domain name in bad faith despite it
being uncomfortable reading for some and in particular, publishing
views and information that are contrary to the policy of one’s
own Government in an endeavour to change that policy does not
constitute bad faith.
The Respondent failed to achieve a finding of Reverse Domain
Name Hijacking against the Complainant.
 THE
DECISION received 01/05/03 
PDF
Document 56k - 13 PAGES
THE
HTML VERSION IS PUBLISHED BY THE WIPO HERE
THE auDA HTML VERSION IS HERE
(Bottom of Page)
The decision vindicates the Respondent
from the spurious accusations of the Tasmanian Government and
its crony mates, that he was hijacking customers of Tourism
Tasmania in order to mislead them.
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THE
GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED PRESS IN TASMANIA IGNORED THIS WIPO STORY,
HOWEVER:-
TASMANIA TANGLED IN STICKY WEB FEUD - The MELBOURNE AGE report
BUSINESS
SPOTLIGHT IN GERMANY DISCOVERS TASMANIA
ZD
NET AUSTRALIA
THE
AUSTRALIAN - The National Newspaper in Australia |
| MAKE
YOUR COMPLAINT
| OPEN
LETTER TO TOURISM TASMANIA |
MORE OF..... Discover-Tasmania,com |
| While
in Tasmania you can discover... |
| Wilderness,
World Heritage, Wildlife, Rainforest, Beaches, Mountains, Markets,
Fine Food, |
| you
can also discover... |
Clearfelling,
Burning, Poisoning, Destruction, Log
Trucks,
Blowing our Future, Ridicule
Pillage,
Obscenity,
Controversy,
Civil
Action, Incompatible
Industries, Smoke
& Fire. |
|
|
| WHAT
THE UK OBSERVER SAYS ABOUT TASMANIA |
