IBM has won its complaint about the ibm.ventures and ibm.guru domain names at the National Arbitration Forum. Both were registered as new gTLD domain names in early February by a person not associated with the corporation and obviously included IBM’s abbreviated title, which is a protected trademark.
The National Arbitration Forum took only a week to consider and satisfy the complaint by IBM. The outcome of the case was predictable from the very beginning since the complaint was heard as a Uniform Rapid Suspension case. The procedure can only be applied to the most transparent cases and usually results in a suspension rather than a transfer of a domain. The case was the first Uniform Rapid Suspension case to be filed against a new gTLD domain name.
It is difficult to understand what the registrant expected from registering both domains at the early access stage, when anyone can apply for registration but the prices are 5 to 7 times higher than during the next period of public registration. Experts estimate that the registration of the two disputable domain names cost around $2,500.
IBM also included both domains in the list of names blocked by copyright holders. This means that after the suspension expires, the domain names will not be available for registration to anyone except the corporation.
