In case you missed it.. earlier this month Rick Schwartz represented by Howard Neu Esq. won the UDRP decision for the domain name SaveMe.com which Márcio Mello Chaves and his brother Heitor Chaves tried to hijack by abusing the UDRP system. The three person panel ruled in favor of Schwartz and eRealEstate.com in a case brought forward by the SaveMe.com.br and the Chaves brothers. The panel also found Márcio and Heitor Chaves guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking.
SaveMe.com was registered in 1996 by Rick Schwartz, SaveMe.com.br filed trademark for ‘SaveMe’ in 2010 and then convinced themselves they were somehow entitled to SaveMe.com.
As promised, Rick Schwartz is doing everything possible to make an example out of the Brazilian company (saveme.com.br) who so thought they were entitled to SaveMe.com. Apparently they were willing to pay for it at one point coming to the table with offers of $10k and $50k which were turned down or ignored by Schwartz. Rick indicated to the potential buyers the price range he would entertain offers would be well into the six figures. Shortly thereafter, Rick and eRealEstate.com were served a UDRP notice for the SaveMe.com. It was then that Schwartz vowed to make Márcio and Heitor Chaves the poster boys for RDNH (reverse domain name hijacking).
The domain name investor community should be grateful that Rick is so passionate and public about defending the rights to his domain names. Smearing domain hijackers names like the Chaves’ brothers and many others he identifies in this post will not stop all reverse domain name hijackers but it will undoubtedly deter many companies or individuals from abusing the UDRP system to pursue generic domain names they can’t afford to or don’t want to cough up the money to buy.
