Navy Sinks Conquistador

According to Wikipedia, conquistadors were “soldiers, explorers, and adventurers at the service of the Portuguese and Spanish empire” whose goal was to conquer new territory for both church and crown. Apparently, an individual in Germany now seeks to take on that mantle but has had some difficulty in finding the right formula for success in his quests.

Involved in a recent National Arbitration Forum (NAF) UDRP complaint, this ambitious yet clueless soldier of fortune lists himself as “Conquistador Sat” and sought to plunder the riches of American retailing by registering the domain OnldNavy.com. However, the opposing forces of The Gap, Inc. led an experienced and respected UDRP Panelist to decide that this particular conquistador had no legitimate interest in the domain name and had registered and used it in bad faith by having it resolve to a pay-per-click (PPC) website with links to the Complainant’s competitors.

Unfortunately, this was just the latest in a string of defeats for this sad soldier. Earlier this year he also lost UDRP decisions relating to the domain names brawnypapertowels.com; webesteronline.com; and advaneautoparts.com. Surprisingly, despite the fierceness of conquistadors of yore and their skill in the use of a wide range of armaments, this particular Respondent also lost a decision against the domain name underarmmour.com.

So what can we expect in the future from Conquistador Sat? A quick reverse WHOIS search for this name turned up no results and so it may be that our anti-hero has marched off into the sunset in search of new adventures. Hopefully, he leaves behind yet another lesson for would-be cybersquatters that domain name knockoffs of famous brands lead to neither treasure nor glory but only heartache and ignominy. It’s actually quite surprising that such blatant squatters as this still walk the earth in light of the past 15 years of UDRP jurisprudence. Unfortunately, with the upcoming launch of over 1,300 new gTLDs, it seems more than likely that there will continue to be young and still naïve explorers who will seek their fortunes by plundering the domain names of others.