Topic: Nintendo's WiiU.com Cybersquatting Appeal Denied

[Dangerface]

Maybe try WiiU.net?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/34823

The appeal Nintendo of America filed with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, over the domain name wiiu.com has been denied.

In February, Nintendo filed a cybersquatting complaint with WIPO over the domain ownership which WIPO has officially denied as of June 19th.

In the appeal, Nintendo asserted that the current owner of wiiu.com had “no rights or legitimate interests,” in the name and was attempting to use it to capitalize on the Nintendo brand.

WIPO’s decision hinged on evidence that the domain name in question was bought back in 2004 for a venture called “We Invest in You.”

Any further negotiations over wiiu.com will have to take place between Nintendo and the current domain owner.

[azeke]

inb4 TJ Spyke's post

[Adrock]

Can it be considered cyber squatting if the domain name was bought back in 2004? This is a serious question. That's before Nintendo even launched the original Wii. I haven't read too many articles on this, but it doesn't seem like the domain owner is doing anything with it. I suppose that's what part of Nintendo's issue is. Did the domain owner keep reregistering it after Wii became popular?

Has Nintendo tried to buy the domain from the owner? And it's weird that Nintendo only filed the original complaint in February. One would think they would have tried to get this resolved shortly after unveiling the name at E3 2011.

[broodwars]

Can it be considered cyber squatting if the domain name was bought back in 2004? This is a serious question. That's before Nintendo even launched the original Wii. I haven't read too many articles on this, but it doesn't seem like the domain owner is doing anything with it. I suppose that's what part of Nintendo's issue is. Did the domain owner keep reregistering it after Wii became popular?

Has Nintendo tried to buy the domain from the owner? And it's weird that Nintendo only filed the original complaint in February. One would think they would have tried to get this resolved shortly after unveiling the name at E3 2011.

Apparently the domain owner was trying to sell the domain before Nintendo sued them, so it was always Nintendo's option to just buy it from them.  But as for why Nintendo didn't resolve this matter after E3 2011, given how Nintendo seems continually flat-footed and unfocused with the Wii U I think it's naive to expect they ever had a plan for anything related to the console.

[StrawHousePig]

Looks like the price just went up.

[smallsharkbigbite]

It's obviously cyber squatting because they bought the website with only the intent to resell.  They got lucky that Nintendo made the Wii and subsequently the Wii U raising the value of their investment.  This is how cyber squatting works, buy a bunch of domain names and hope a company releases a product and that site will become valuable. 


It was also more likely because I read their are no 3 letter domain names left.  They probably figured that registering 4 letter domain names made sense as more websites are developed daily.  4 letter names are especially important with our societies propensity to abbreviate and use acronyms.  It was only a matter of time before the acronym wiiu meant something. 

[Oblivion]

They made it in 2004... Before the Wii was even announced... how the **** did they buy that domain and SOMEHOW knew that in 2012 Nintendo would release a console with that name? I know this is a Nintendo fansite but that is some tasty bias if I've ever seen one.

[azeke]

Cybersquatters throw a very wide net. They will just take any random combination of letters in hope someone will eventually release a product or form a company with that abbreviation and will need this domain.

I just checked a few sites by pressing random letter on my keyboard and yep, waa, fsdsf are all occupied.