Recently, renowned attorney John Berryhill achieved another success in the UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) field. Following his successful representation in the Rams.com case, he has once again secured a crucial victory for the domain registrant, defending the legitimate ownership of Tarotap.com.
The core dispute in the case stemmed from a complaint by the U.S. company Tarot Tap, Inc. This company holds the U.S. trademark “TAROT TAP,” registered in 2023, operates an AI tarot card application and the tarot-tap.com website, and alleged that the Tarotap.com domain name is highly similar to its trademark and serves the same purpose of providing online tarot card services, thus constituting trademark infringement and reputational damage.
The defendant, domain holder Zaichen Huang, was represented by attorney John Berryhill in the lawsuit. The legal team submitted crucial evidence confirming that Mr. Huang is the person in charge of Tarotap Ltd, a UK company established in December 2023. “Tarotap” is a compound word he independently created (tarot + tap), and it has been used in his AI tarot card service for Chinese users since early 2024, thus possessing a legitimate basis for commercial use.
Based on the UDRP adjudication rules, while the panel acknowledged the similarity between the domain name and the complainant’s trademark, it clearly stated that Tarotap Ltd’s company name and its ongoing commercial use constituted legitimate rights. Considering the complainant’s limited business scope and the fact that its services fall within the general tarot card field, the panel accepted Mr. Huang’s statement that he was unaware of the domain name beforehand and found no evidence of malicious registration or use by the defendant.
Ultimately, the panel ruled to dismiss the entire complaint, and the Tarotap.com domain name remains the property of the respondent, Huang Zaichen, once again demonstrating the UDRP’s principle of protecting legitimate domain name rights.
News Source:DomainGang.com，This article does not represent our position.
