Canadian Tire, a retail giant selling everything from hubcaps to
Sony PlayStations, is taking action over the domain name
crappytire.com, asserting its exclusive right to be known by
Canadians as “Crappy Tire.”
Mick McFadden of Ontario currently owns the domain name
“CrappyTire.com”. Until last year, it was a web site that protested
against the prices of Totonto-based Canadian Tire by comparing the
prices with those of rivals. The company threatened to sue McFadden
and he duly removed his web site. But he refused to give up his
domain name to the company.
Consequently, Canadian Tire took its demand for CrappyTire.com
to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva.
OUT-LAW’s John Salmon said:
“To win its case before WIPO, Canadian Tire
is going to have to convince a panel that ‘crappytire.com’ is
identical or confusingly similar to its trade marks – i.e. that
when Canadians think of ‘Crappy Tire’, they think only of Canadian
Tire.”
This is exactly what it is arguing. Canadian Tire’s submission
to WIPO states:
“Canadian Tire is also colloquially referred
to or known as Crappy Tire… a slang expression derived from the
Canadian Tire trade marks… frequently used by younger Canadian Tire
customers. In the vast majority of cases, the usage does not have a
negative connotation but is an impertinent reference to a mass
merchandiser.”
Salmon explained:
“What makes Canadian Tire unusual is that
the company is asserting rights to something not even featuring its
name. But whether it wins or not, does it really want to encourage
people to call it ‘Crappy Tire’? It seems to me that this action
has already backfired, particularly since the site itself had
already been removed.
“If someone puts defamatory messages on a
web site then there are likely grounds for legal action. But a site
just airing customer grievances may not be worth the hassle,
expense and embarrassment of legal action. It might only encourage
the owner.”
