Often, domain names consisting of a company name followed by the word “sucks” are used for web sites where customers of the company can air their grievances. When the companies have taken action to recover the domain names, results have been mixed.
In Seo Kim of British Columbia registered philipssucks.com in January 2000, together with 14 other similar “sucks” names based on well-known brand names.
WIPO panellist Jonathan Turner wrote:
"Not all internet users are English speaking or familiar with the use of 'sucks' to indicate a site used for denigration. Furthermore, it is not unknown for companies to establish complaint or comment sites or areas of sites to obtain feedback on their products; accordingly, some people might suppose that a web site of this nature at the domain name was operated by [Philips]."
He continued:
"It does not follow from this approach that the registration of any domain name comprising a famous brand followed by sucks.tld [top level domain] can be successfully challenged under [the dispute rules]. If such a domain name is genuinely registered and used for the purposes of criticism of the brand, [the challenge will fail]."
In deciding in favour of the Dutch company, he noted that the web site for philipssucks.com was “rudimentary.” The site contains an “under development” message and comments purporting to be from five Philips customers. Turner said it did not appear “to constitute genuine non-commercial use” and inferred that the likely reason for registration of the name was to re-sell it to Philips at a profit.