Sole panelist – Adv. Naomi Assia
The decision was rendered on June 10, 2024.
Background and arguments of the parties:
The Petitioner, an American employee recruitment company, filed a petition for the transfer of rights to the domain names ziprecruiter.co.il and ziprecruiter.org.il (hereinafter, “the Domain Names“), of which the Respondent has been the holder since 2016.
The Petitioner was incorporated in the United States in 2010 and provides online employee recruitment services for the private and commercial sectors. The Petitioner is active in Israel through its online platform and through its Israeli subsidiary established in 2015.
The Petitioner’s primary domain name is ziprecruiter.com, and it holds additional domain names with various country-code extensions. The Petitioner approached the Respondent through its legal representatives, demanding the transfer of the Domain Names to its ownership, but the Respondent did not reply. The Petitioner argued that the Respondent registered the Domain Names in bad faith and that the Respondent has no legitimate rights in the names.
A brief response from the Respondent was received from an individual named R. Zvi, using the closed mailing list dedicated to IL-DRP proceedings, and thus it is considered a legitimate response. The Respondent did not contest the Petitioner’s claims and relinquished the rights to the Domain Names.
Decision:
In light of the Respondent’s waiver of rights to the Domain Names and the fact that the Petitioner provided sufficient evidence to shift the burden of proof to the Respondent to demonstrate a legitimate right to continue holding the Domain Names, the Domain Names are to be transferred to the Petitioner.
The Panel accepted the petition and ordered the transfer of the Domain Names to the Petitioner.
The above is a summary of the decision. The full decision in Hebrew is available here. [PDF]