Monaco Casino Won Back montecarlo.la — Has Your Brand Domain Been Taken by 'First Come, First Served'?

摩纳哥赌场把montecarlo.la抢回来了——你的品牌域名被人“先到先得”了吗？

ຄາສິໂນມອນາໂຄດຶງ montecarlo.la ກັບມາໄດ້ແລ້ວ——ໂດເມນຍີ່ຫໍ້ຂອງເຈົ້າຖືກຄົນອື່ນ 'ມາກ່ອນໄດ້ກ່ອນ' ແລ້ວບໍ?

Published: 2026-09-14 · LaoPaniti legal guides

You spent years building your brand, only to discover one day that when customers type your brand name's .la domain into their browser, they land on a page completely unrelated to you — this doesn't just happen to small business owners.

A 'National-Level' Brand, Still Cybersquatted

A Company in Monaco, whose name includes the place name 'Monte-Carlo', holds the MONTE-CARLO Trademark. One day they discovered that the domain montecarlo.la had been registered by someone named Eduardo Becares.

The Company did not suffer in silence, but filed a domain name Dispute Complaint with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. The core of the Dispute came down to three questions:

1. Is the domain name confusingly similar to their MONTE-CARLO Trademark?
2. Does the registrant have any legitimate Right or interest in the domain name?
3. Did the registrant register and use the domain name in bad faith?

The Ruling: Domain Name Transfer

In 2022, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center issued a Ruling in favor of the complainant, ordering the transfer of the domain name montecarlo.la to the Company in Monaco.

The decision was based on Article 4(a) and Article 4(b)(iv) of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), as well as the UDRP Rules and the WIPO Supplemental Rules. Simply put, to win, a complainant must prove three things simultaneously: the domain name is confusingly similar to the Trademark, the respondent has no legitimate Right or interest, and the respondent registered and used the domain name in bad faith. If any one of these three is missing, you cannot get it back.

The lesson from this case is straightforward: brand domain names are not 'whoever grabs first owns it'. As long as your Trademark has sufficient recognition, and someone cybersquats on a .la domain name highly similar to your brand, you have a chance to get it back through the UDRP process.

But the precondition is — you must have a Trademark, and you must be able to prove the other party acted in bad faith.

What Should You Do If You're Doing Business in Laos?

If you have a brand and a business in Laos, the sooner you do the following, the better:

• First, check whether your brand name's .la domain has been registered by someone else;
• If you have a Trademark, organize your Trademark Registration documents;
• If you discover cybersquatting, don't rush to 'negotiate a price' with the other party — first see whether the UDRP path is viable.

We previously wrote 'Your Hard-Earned Brand, Domain Cybersquatted? See How Starbucks Got starbucks.la Back in Laos', which follows the same logic. We also wrote 'Not a Single Letter Less: From the Recovery of pradaboutique.la, the "Lifeline" of Brand Domains', which is an even more typical case — one letter off, and it was still recovered.

When it comes to domain name Disputes, the worst fear is not being cybersquatted, but not knowing you can get it back.

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This article was compiled by 老法智 LaoPaniti for reference only and does not constitute legal advice.

Is your brand domain safe? Visit 老法智 LaoPaniti to ask AI for free, spend a few minutes checking and asking, and don't wait until all your customers have gone to the wrong place before you realize it.

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