In Coast Hotels Ltd. v. UNITE HERE, WIPO Case No. D2009-1295 (2009), the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Arbitration and Mediation Center found the Union’s domain names were being used for legitimate non-commercial purposes in the Center’s first-ever case involving a union website critical of an employer. The Center, a United Nations agency that regulates the use of domain names by entities internationally, rejected the complaint filed by Coast Hotels, which argued that the Union had violated its trademark rights. The Union, represented by Davis, Cowell & Bowe, argued that it was making a fair, non-commercial use of the domain names www.coasthotels-badforbc.org and www.coasthotels-badforbc.info. The WIPO Center agreed, in a landmark decision that incorporated principles of international law, while also seeking to harmonize national laws and prior Center decisions. It found that the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights both recognize free speech and freedom of opinion, and that these were international, and not simply American, legal principles. The decision is available at: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2009/d2009-1295.html
