The United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; website) has found in favor of FIT Bearings (USA) in its action against Ningbo Flight International Industrial Co. Ltd. (China).

WIPO found Ningbo Flight guilty of cybersquatting (Wikipedia definition) and that it had acted in bad faith registering FITBearing.com as a website address.

FIT Bearings successfully argued that Ningbo Flight's sole intent in registering FITBearing.com was to exploit the potential confusion of Internet traffic destined for FITBearings.com.

Read the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center decision D2007-1488 here: WIPO decision D2007-1488
In its decision, WIPO said Ningbo Flight attempted, "to ride on the goodwill of Complainant’s trade mark in an attempt to exploit, for commercial gain, Internet traffic destined for [FIT Bearing]."

The panel found Ningbo Flight failed every test for legitimate right or reason to register FITBearing.com. Further, the company could not produce evidence it had been legally incorporated in China, and did not use the FITBearing.com website except to capture and redirect traffic to its own website.

Cybersquatting is a crime in virtually every jurisdiction around the world, such as the United States' Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. However, when the complaint crosses international boundaries, as FIT Bearings', jurisdiction falls to the United Nations copyright agency, WIPO, which gained that power in 1999.

WIPO's Arbitration and Mediation Center site is here: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/index.html
WIPO does not assess financial penalties, but forced Ningbo Flight to turn over the domain name. FIT Bearings said it will operate FITBearing.com and FITBearings.com together.