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October 25 2001 - Brazil
I American Airlines wins significant squatting dispute
I
American Airlines recently recovered the domain names 'americanairlines.com.br' and 'aa.com.br' by
serving out of court cease and desist orders on the Brazilian parties that had registered the
company's trademarks as domain names.
This is significant because Brazil has not yet become a party to any existing dispute resolution
treaties (eg, ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy) in relation to its country-code top-Ievel
domain, nor has it established any legislative guidelines on what constitutes 'bad faith' registration of
domain names.
This lack of legislation has not stopped Brazil's courts trom taking the buli by the homs and ordering
the transfer of domain names that the eourts deem to have been registered unfairly. As shown in the
Ayrfon Senna Case, if it can be proved that the registrant of a domain name acted unfairly to restriet
the rights of the legitimate trademark owner, the trademark owner has the right to reclaim the domain
name.
Erica Aoki, Moreira Uma & Roysfer Advogados wifh Sfeel, Hecfor & Davis LLP, Sao Paulo
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