A team of specialists from HAVEL & PARTNERS helped Roche, a leading multinational manufacturer of specialised medicinal products, win a dispute over a Czech domain name having the name of one of those medicinal products. Based on the award of the Arbitration Court attached to the Economic Chamber of the Czech Republic and Agricultural Chamber of the Czech Republic in ADR proceedings, the domain name was subsequently transferred to Roche for no consideration.

When registering a new medicinal product, Roche discovered that the required Czech domain name had already been registered by someone else. That registration took place on the day Roche publicly announced the name of the new medicinal product. This was therefore an example of so-called cybersquatting, which is the deliberate registration of a domain name at the expense of another brand. The domain name holder demanded several million Czech crowns from Roche for the domain name transfer.

Our technology law experts – partner Ivan Rámeš, associate Tomáš Chmelka and associate Matěj Kurtin – successfully resolved the entire dispute for Roche, including sending a call to transfer the domain name for no consideration, conducting negotiations with the domain name holder, and preparing and conducting ADR proceedings that were closed with the transfer of the domain name to Roche for no consideration.

Roche is a global pioneer in the field of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, focusing on the production of specialised medicinal products in the areas of oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and central nervous system diseases. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, the Roche Group operates in more than 100 countries worldwide.