ADMINISTRATIVE PANEL DECISION Case No
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ADMINISTRATIVE PANEL DECISION Case No. CN-2101385 Complainants: Canaan Creative Co., Ltd. (Complainant 1); Hangzhou Canaan Creative Information Technology Co., Limited (Complainant 2) Respondent: Bo Wang Domain Name: canaanavalonminers.com Registrar: NameCheap, Inc. 1. Procedural History On February 7, 2021, the Complainants submitted a Complaint in English to the Beijing Office of the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center (the ADNDRC Beijing Office) and elected this case to be dealt with by a one-person panel, in accordance with the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the Policy) and the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the Rules) approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and the ADNDRC Supplemental Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the ADNDRC Supplemental Rules) approved by the ADNDRC. On February 7, 2021, the ADNDRC Beijing Office sent to the Complainants by email an acknowledgment of the receipt of the Complaint and transmitted by email to ICANN and the Registrar, NameCheap, Inc., a request for registrar verification in connection with the disputed domain name. On April 9, 2021, the Registrar transmitted by email to the ADNDRC Beijing Office its verification response, confirming that the Respondent is listed as the registrant and providing the contact details. On April 20, 2021, the ADNDRC notified the Complainants that the Complaint has been confirmed and transmitted to the Respondent and the case officially commenced. On the same day, the ADNDRC Beijing Office transmitted the Written Notice of the Complaint to the Respondent by email and post, which informed that the Complainants had filed a Complaint against the disputed domain name and the ADNDRC Beijing Office had sent the complaint and its attachments through email according to the Rules and the Supplemental Rules. On the same day, the ADNDRC Beijing Office notified 1 ICANN and Registrar, NameCheap, Inc., of the commencement of the proceedings. The Respondent failed to submit a Response within the specified time period. Since the Respondent did not mention the Panel selection in accordance with the time specified in the Rules, the ADNDRC Supplemental Rules, and the Notification, the ADNDRC Beijing Office informed the Complainants and the Respondent that the ADNDRC Beijing Office would appoint a one-person panel to proceed to render a decision in this matter. Having received a Declaration of Impartiality and Independence and a Statement of Acceptance from Mr. Matthew Murphy, the ADNDRC Beijing Office notified the parties on May 19, 2021 that the Panel in this case had been selected, with Mr. Matthew Murphy acting as the sole panelist. The Panel determines that the appointment was made in accordance with Paragraph 6 of the Rules and Articles 8 and 9 of the Supplemental Rules. On May 19, 2021, the Panel received the file from the ADNDRC Beijing Office and noted that he should render the Decision within 14 days, i.e., on or before June 2, 2021. Pursuant to Paragraph 11 (a) of the Rules, unless otherwise agreed by the Parties, or specified otherwise in the Registration Agreement, the language of the administrative proceeding shall be the language of the Registration Agreement, subject to the authority of the Panel to determine otherwise, having regard to the circumstances of the administrative proceeding. The language of the current disputed domain name Registration Agreement is English, thus the Panel determines English as the appropriate language of the proceedings. 2. Factual Background A. The Complainants The Complainants in this case are Canaan Creative Co., Ltd (Complainant 1). with a registered address at Room101, Block C, building 27, Zhongguancun Software Park Phase I, No.8 Dongbeiwang West Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China, and Hangzhou Canaan Creative Information Technology Co., Limited (Complainant 2) with a registered address at 1203, 12/F, Building 4, No.9 Jiuhuan Road, Jianggan District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China (collectively as “Complainants” or “Canaan”). The authorized representatives in this case are Wang Qiongqiong and Yu Shumin of Beijing Loten Intellectual Property Agency Co., Ltd.. The Complainants claim that Complainant 1 is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Compliant 2 and they are both owned by the Nasdaq listed company “Canaan Inc.”. The Complainants claim that Canaan is the leading provider of supercomputing solutions, distinguished for their high-performance computing ASIC chips and Avalon Bitcoin mining equipment, as well as the second-largest designer and manufacturer of Bitcoin 2 mining equipment in the world in terms of computing power and the Bitcoin mining equipment sold thereby accounted for 22% of the total computing power of all Bitcoin mining equipment sold globally, according to the independent market research firm Frost & Sullivan, up to June 30, 2019. The Complainants claim that Canaan was founded in 2013 and then released the world's first blockchain mining equipment (Avalon digital cryptocurrency miner) based on the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chips, leading the industry into the era of ASIC mining. The Complainants claim that it also dedicated significant resources for the R&D on artificial intelligence (AI) chips, and achieved great technological breakthroughs, such as successfully initiating the mass production of its first 16nm chip and passing the test to receive China's National High-Tech Enterprise Certification in 2016 and so on. The Complainants claim that it is currently focused on the R&D of advanced technology, including such areas as AI chips, AI algorithms, AI architectures, system on a chip (SoC) integration, and chip integration. The Complainants also claim that on November 21, 2019, Canaan successfully listed on the US IPO on Nasdaq, Stock code: CAN, becoming the first stock in the global blockchain industry and the first successful IPO of a Chinese company with the independent intellectual property of AI chips, and it is now a supercomputing chip developer, a blockchain computing equipment manufacturer, and a blockchain computing software and hardware overall solution provider with products and services distributed in more than 60 countries and regions, such as United States, Canada, Sweden, Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia, Chile, Armenia, etc. The Complainants claim that they are the owner of trademarks“Canaan”, “Avalon”, “AvalonMiner” and so on in Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, the United States, Japan, South Korea, and some other countries/regions, including but not limited to Registrations No.304399228 “Canaan”, No.304404771 “Avalon”, No.304404762 “AvalonMiner” in Hong Kong SAR, and Registration No.18019011 “AvalonMiner” in Mainland China. The Complainants claim that those trademarks have formed a unique directional relationship with the Complainants and its Avalon miner products through years of continuous and extensive publicity and use, and they have become commercial signs full of the Complainants’ good reputation and have accumulated very high popularity and influence in the blockchain industry. In addition, the Complainants claim that they have attached great importance to displaying, promoting, and marketing its well-known "Avalon" and "AvalonMiner" mining equipment products under the trade name “Canaan” to partners globally by registering and using domain names, as well as establishing and operating websites, including but not limited to “canaan- creative.com”, “canaan.io”, “avalonminer.net”, and “avalon.top”. B. The Respondent 3 The Respondent in this case is Bo Wang. The registered address is 48 Hiland St, Cal, CA P, US. The Respondent is the current registrant of the disputed domain name “canaanavalonminers.com”, which was registered on September 8, 2019, according to the WHOIS information. The registrar of the disputed domain name is NameCheap, Inc. 3. Parties’ Contentions A. The Complainants (i) The disputed domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the Complainants have rights The Complainants claim that they began to use “Canaan”, "Avalon" and "AvalonMiner" as trademarks in business activities from 2013 and have registered these trademarks globally for protection. Upon continuous and extensive publicity and use, the Complainants claim that their “Canaan”, "Avalon" and "AvalonMiner" trademarks have gained high brand awareness and good reputation in the blockchain industry. The Complainants claim that the disputed domain name “canaanavalonminers.com”, excluding the gTLD suffix “.com”, completely contains their registered trademarks “Canaan”, "Avalon", and "AvalonMiner", and the distinctive portion "canaanavalonminers" could be easily recognized as the combinations of the Complainants’ registered trademarks “canaan” plus “avalonminer” or “canaan” plus “avalon” plus “miners”, despite the addition of the plural form “s” at the end. The Complainants further claim that the “miners”, as a term frequently used in the blockchain industry, is one of the Complainants’ core product lines, and the combinations thereof with the Complainants’ trademarks would lead to the misunderstanding that “canaanavalonminers” is being developed and operated by the Complainants for strengthening and expanding the business of mining equipment. Thus, the Complainants consider that such a confusingly similar domain name will lead consumers to misidentify it as the online sales platform of the Complainants’ brands