URS Complaint Requires Registered Mark

Common law rights in a mark are not sufficient to support a Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) System complaint against a registered domain name, a panel at the National Arbitration Forum decided June 16 in a (URS) proceeding (BAS Services & Graphics LLC. v. QA Graphics).

When it comes to the URS, the rules mean what they say, sole panelist Sebastian Matthew White Hughes remarked.

“It appears the [URS] proceedings have been brought under the misapprehension that Complainant can rely on common law rights,” the panelist said.

The complainant in this case relied on its “BAS Services & Graphics ...