Sanofi fails to transfer sanofi.xin domain

Pharmaceutical company Sanofi has failed to transfer the domain name sanofi.xin, despite the fact it has a registered trademark for exactly the same term.

In a decision handed by the National Arbitration Forum, France-based Sanofi was told it had not satisfied the first requirement in order to succeed under the Uniform Rapid Suspension System procedure.

Sanofi filed its complaint against the Chinese-based respondent at the end of last month.

To transfer the domain, Sanofi would have to have proven that the domain was identical or confusingly similar to a word mark it owns, that the registrant had no rights or interest in the domain, and that it was registered in bad faith.

But despite the fact that Sanofi relied on an international registration for the term ‘Sanofi’, examiner Sebastian Hughes denied its complaint.

“In seeking to rely on its registration for the word and device mark ‘Sanofi’, complainant has not satisfied the requirements,” Hughes wrote in the decision, handed down on May 3.

Because Sanofi failed to reach the first requirement, the remaining two grounds were not considered.