The National Arbitration Forum has released its decision in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. R.L. Cadenhead. There has been a domain-name dispute between the two parties where the film studio tried to take Wargames.Com away from R.L. Cadenhead as it owns a trademark related to the 1983 film WarGames and the upcoming sequel WarGames 2: The Dead Code.

MGM’s claim was denied by a three-member panel of arbitrators on the grounds that R.L. Cadenhead had established a legitimate interest in selling wargames at the domain.

The picture emerging from this material is of the Respondent, having seen the Complainant’s WARGAMES movie as a teenager in or about 1983 and having developed a professional interest in computer programming and wargames, to the extent of writing about them, creating them and publishing material on numerous websites, registered the disputed Domain Name in 1998 with the intention of one day using it to sell wargames over the Internet. The idea remaining in abeyance for six years until the Respondent began to prepare to open his online store. In the meantime the domain name resolved to a website which, inter alia, contained advertising links which most likely generated PPC revenue. By the time the Complainant complained by letter on September 7, 2006, preparations to open the online store had advanced sufficiently to enable the Respondent to advance his plans and to open the store on September 14, 2006.

The Complainant rightly submits that what the Respondent did after receiving the letter of September 7, 2006 cannot be taken into account in determining legitimacy. However, the speed with which the Respondent was able to open his online store after having received that letter lends support to the Respondent’s contention that much work by way of preparation to use the disputed domain name for the purpose of selling wargames over the Internet had already been done by the time that letter was received. The sworn statements mentioned above cannot be dismissed as ex post facto attempts to concoct a defense to this complaint. Indeed, they explain the acquisition in 2004 of the sales and use tax permit and the subscription to the Drop Ship Source Directory as being related to the Respondent’s intended online wargames store.

In the complaint lodged by MGM, they pointed out several things to make the defendant look like a cybersquatter obsessed with the film, including a joke he made in Sams Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hours:

The quote “Shall we play a game?” is from the 1983 movie War Games, in which a young computer programmer portrayed by Matthew Broderick saves mankind after almost causing global thermonuclear war and the near-extinction of humankind. You’ll learn how to do that in the next book of this series, Sams Teach Yourself to Create International Incidents with Java in 24 Hours.

MGM also cited a Red Herring interview:

That the Respondent recalls where he first saw the WARGAMES film demonstrates the degree to which the film imprinted on his mind, and helps to explain his fascination and continuing references to MGM’s film.

When first contacted by MGM in September, the defendant was certain that he would win a Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) case if his ownership of the domain was challenged. R.L Cadenhead didn’t know much about the UDRP, having never been involved in one of these disputes in a decade of web publishing, but he understood that it existed to stop people from grabbing Domains to profit on somebody else’s trademark. He got Wargames.Com solely to sell wargames.

The more the defendant learned about the UDRP, the less confidence he had in winning. Most disputes end in victories for trademark holders and there’s a huge number of ways that domain owners have been judged to have acted in bad faith.

Where domain owners are concerned, the UDRP’s a strange game where the only winning move is not to play.

This battle has been four months of stress-induced, R.L. Cadenhead claims. His next book may very well cover how domain name owners can protect themselves from a UDRP grab. Good for him!