B. Identical or Confusingly Similar
The Complainant has not established registered or common law trademark rights in "AT PROPERTIES". Instead, its registered trademarks consist of, or include, @PROPERTIES, and these are the marks that must be compared with the Domain Name.
The first element of the UDRP is "essentially a standing requirement" requiring "a straightforward visual or aural comparison of the trademark with the alphanumeric string in the domain name."
WIPO Overview 2.0,
paragraph 1.2. Noting also that the Domain Name and associated content are in the English language, the Panel relies on the fact that the "@" sign is commonly pronounced in English in the same way as the preposition "at" found in the Domain Name. Thus, the Panel finds that the Domain Name, taken as a whole with the gTLD ".properties", is phonetically identical to the Complainant's @PROPERTIES mark and therefore confusingly similar for purposes of the first element of the Policy.
The Respondent argues that the gTLD ".properties" should be disregarded, but this would ignore the overall impact of the Domain Name. As with ".com", ".net", and many other gTLDs, the ".properties" gTLD portion of the Domain Name would not normally be considered material for Policy purposes, as the ".properties" gTLD is not restricted in a manner that would avoid confusion with trademarks in any particular industry or geography. However, where the gTLD is identical or confusingly similar to a portion of the trademark, it may be perceived as such by Internet users and is therefore relevant in considering the elements of a UDRP complaint. As explained in
WIPO Overview 2.0,
paragraph 1.2, "The applicable top-level suffix in the domain name (
e.g., '.com') would usually be disregarded under the confusing similarity test (as it is a technical requirement of registration), except in certain cases where the applicable top-level suffix may itself form part of the relevant trademark." This is such a case, as "properties" is part of the Complainant's @PROPERTIES marks.
The Panel concludes that the first element of the Complaint has been established.