Canadian Tire loses fight for www.crappytire.com

Canadian Tire Corp. has lost its bid to wrest control of the "crappytire.com" Web site from a London, Ont. man.

A Canadian abitrator appointed by the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ruled that the retailer cannot claim the right to the expression.

Mick McFadden has said he intended to use the site as a means of voicing complaints about pricing and quality. He took the site down over a year ago, after Canadian Tire threatened court action., but kept ownership of the domain name.

Canadian Tire tried to buy the site from Mcfadden but he declined to sell it. In his decision, WIPO arbitrator Ross Carson noted that Canadian Tire said "crappytire.com" was listed for sale for $85,000 US at the Website www.greatdomains.com.

In its original complaint to WIPO, Canadian Tire argued it is "colloquially referred to or known as Crappy Tire."

" The term Crappy Tire is a slang expression derived from the Canadian Tire trade marks [and is] frequently used by younger Canadian Tire customers," the company said. "In the vast majority of cases, the usage does not have a negative connotation but is an impertinent reference to a mass merchandiser."

"Since when is the world "Canadian" interchangeable with or similar to "crappy"," countered McFadden in his submission to WIPO.