UDRP panel confirms that a domain name is not registered in bad faith if the registration happened before a trademark right is established

In an UDRP case concerning the domain name stinkysocks.com, the panel concluded that the domain name was not registered in bad faith, as the registration happened some 15 years before the complainant acquired registered rights in the mark  “STINKYSOCKS HOCKEY”. In its opinion, the panel “observes a general view of the UDRP panels that although a trademark can form a basis for a UDRP action under the first element irrespective of its date, when a domain name is registered by the respondent before the complainant’s relied-upon trademark right is shown to have been first established, the registration of the domain name would not have been in bad faith because the registrant could not have contemplated the complainant’s then non-existent right.” Source