The British tabloid The Sun lost its domain dispute for thesun.com in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The Sun currently uses thesun.co.uk, although it has long been dreaming of having the same .com domain. However, thesun.com belongs to another user whose data are hidden by confidentiality settings and who wants quite a big sum for the domain. According to Domain Name Wire, in 2016 the paper attempted to purchase the domain for $300,000, but the owner asked for at least $700,000. Last year, The Sun offered $600,000, but the domain owner demanded $2.5 million.
The paper representatives got angry and turned to WIPO to try to prove their right to the domain. However, their complaint under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) was doomed from the start. The domain was registered back in 2001, and there was no evidence of bad faith use or rights infringement with the paper. WIPO rejected the complaint and concluded that it constituted reverse domain name hijacking.
It is noteworthy that The Sun is quite an infamous paper. Nevertheless, analysts, while admitting WIPO’s decision was fair, point out the owner’s greed and poor judgment. They believe that the price offered by the paper is more than adequate, and that $2.5 million is too high and far above the real market price of the domain.
