Recently, global creative marketing company MediaMonks Multimedia Holding BV (Netherlands) filed a cross-border brand infringement lawsuit against North Macedonian respondent Alexander Simonowski over the domain name Monks.agency. Ultimately, the UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) panel dismissed the complaint, and the Monks.agency domain remains the property of the respondent.
MediaMonks argued that the Monks.agency domain name is identical to its “MONKS” trademark, and that the “.agency” suffix exacerbates user confusion. As a global creative marketing agency, the company believes that the domain’s previous slogan, “We are not monks, but we are better than monks,” was a deliberate association with its 2024 “Monks” rebranding plan.
The respondent, Alexander Simonowski, provided key counter-evidence: his local company, formerly known as Monk Marketing DOOEL (later renamed “Monks Skopje Branch”), possessed VAT records, LinkedIn profiles, and a functional agency website, proving that the 2022 registration of Monks.agency was for its own brand use, predating MediaMonks’ rebranding in 2024. He emphasized that the phrase “not monks/monksters” was a wordplay on “monks (symbolizing self-discipline and focus),” not targeting the Dutch company, and that the domain name had never been used for sale, discontinued, or impersonated the complainant.
After review, the panel determined that the domain name and trademark were confusingly similar, but there was no conclusive evidence that the respondent was aware of or targeted the “MONKS” trademark at the time of registration. The panel ruled that broader issues of unfair competition should be adjudicated by the courts, not the UDRP. Since malicious registration was not proven and there was no abuse of procedures, MediaMonks’ appeal was ultimately rejected, confirming that Monks.agency belongs to the respondent, and the respondent was not found to have committed reverse domain hijacking.
News Source:domaingang.com，This article does not represent our position.
