3nd French TV Channel France3 lost www.france3.com in South Korea

["Jean-Bernard CONDAT" <condat@chrystol.com>]

3nd French TV Channel France3 lost www.france3.com in South Korea

It surely sometimes happened to you to seek the program TV of a French chain
by consulting its Web site Nothing more normal. But do not let your children
consult only the site france3.com: you would very be likely to have some
images of Korean pornography hardware.

Once the dissipated surprise, France3 decides to attack the problem by
assigning in summary procedure the Korean owner of the domain name
cybersquatté, Mr. Segwon KIM, in front of the TGI of Nanterre. May 17, 2001,
the decision makes prohibition with the part intimated to use france3.com
and orders with the Korean registrar to make the transfer of the rights for
the benefit of the French company. Immediately, a Korean judge seized in the
absence of the France3 company refuses the exequatur French summary
procedure. France3 retorts immediately by carrying out a procedure UDRP
against Mr. KIM. The single Korean expert refuses the transfer by pure
protectionism (WIPO D2001-1322). The pressure goes up when the happy owner,
profiting from the notoriety of France3 to hang a maximum of Net surfers,
refuses the friendly offer of sale of his domain name. France3 retente a new
procedure UDRP... which shows decision WIPO D2002-1181: refusal to re-open
the debate for defect of new evidence.

In this last expertise, a college of three experts was indicated by the
arbitration of WIPO among the two experts introduced by each party. Mrs.
Nathalie DREYFUS took part in this decision within the framework of the
college of the three experts, the two others of which the president being
Korean. Even if the language of procedure is the language of the reservator
of the domain name, Korean, it were astonishing that WIPO supports Korean
experts whereas certain Australian experts had been more neutral. This
question of neutrality of the college of experts is a first disturbing point
of this file.

French expert DREYFUS for its part wrote a "dissenting opinion" in favour of
the transfer of the domain name to the profit of the France3 company. Its
arguments: France3 is titular of a valid mark, the domain name pointed
towards a site pornographic from which the owner drew money: it could not
thus be in good faith. Only difficulty: in Korea, the France3 company is not
known of the man in the street... Also, the two experts replaced the judge
to establish the value of the mark, which is not theirs competence.

While seeking in the numerical files of the Web, it is easily possible to
find the first pages of the site france3.fr February 20, 1997, signed VTCOM
and posting proudly: "France3: the French television of curiosity and the
proximity." On the other hand, the first Web signs of the site in
construction france3.com date from December 27, 1996. The webmaster then
signed its site by a simple email duval@worldnet.fr, proof undeniable of a
first draft of site reserved at a French shelterer known good WORLDNET.
January 17 and on April 18, 1997, the site was in the same state... to die
out on December 27, 1996... per lapse of memory of payment of the shelterer.
March 31, 2001 appears in the numerical files of the site france3.com, a
page arranged by Mr. KIM announcing "we are preparing for the best porn
site: go@france3.com." Oddly, the simple anteriority of the first site
france3.com realized by the webmaster French DUVAL was never presented in
logic FILO ("first in, last out"), absolute rule of attribution of all the
domain names according to rules' of the ICANN.

This lapse of memory shows the importance of the evidence prefabricated in
the installation of very new product, even a Web site France3 having
forgotten this basic rule... allows from now on all our children of surfer
nicely on a very functional and madly erotic site. Prohibited at least 16
years!