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Panel denies Salesforce the name Forces.com in domain dispute

Force.com

After filing a complaint (Case No. 1416951) with the National Arbitration Forum last month against Internet Venture Holdings (IVH) over Forces.com, Salesforce.com has been denied the domain name.

Not surprisingly, the panel found that <forces.com> was not identical or confusingly similar to any mark in which Salesforce.com has rights.  As a result, the name was ordered to remain with its owner Internet Venture Holdings (IVH) and will not be transferred to Salesforce.com.

Because the panel concluded that the domain was not identical or confusingly similar, it didn’t bother establishing whether IVH had no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; or whether the domain had been registered and was being used in bad faith.

There was also no finding of reverse domain hijacking.

If Salesforce.com really wants a generic domain, they should pay the asking price, not bully smaller companies.

Full details of the panel’s decision can be read online here.

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News

Top 10 Stories of 2011: #5 Salesforce revealed as $2.6MM social.com buyer

Marc Benioff

The biggest domain sale of 2011, with a price tag of $2.6 million, was social.com. 

The domain sold in June and was co-brokered by Marksmen’s Cyntia King and Moniker.com’s John Mauriello.

As to who purchased the domain name remained a mystery, that is until I broke the story that the buyer was none other than Salesforce.com, the enterprise software company that has paid millions of dollars for domains such as database.com and data.com.

Number five in the Top 10 stories of 2011 here on Fusible, with nearly two hundred tweets, was revealing Salesforce.com as the buyer of social.com in September.  

The story also exposed a flaw within Network Solutions’ password retrieval system, which has yet to be fixed.

Though some doubted whether Salesforce.com was the buyer after my story ran, Marc Benioff confirmed publicly at Salesforce.com’s Cloudforce New York in late November that he did buy social.com, saying “We don’t have a product for it yet – it’s just a placeholder.”

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Disputes National Arbitration Forum News

SalesForce.com attempts to hijack Forces.com by filing domain dispute

Marc Benioff Salesforce.com

Earlier this month, SalesForce.com filed a complaint (Case No. 1416951) with the National Arbitration Forum against Internet Venture Holdings (IVH) over the domain Forces.com.

While complainants in disputes filed with the National Arbitration Forum aren’t revealed until a panel delivers a decision, I contacted IVH to see if my suspicions were correct “that Salesforce.com was behind the complaint” and an IVH representative confirmed via e-mail that, indeed, Salesforce.com was the complainant.

What’s interesting about this case – and this isn’t unheard of – is that Salesforce.com not only has a good chance of losing the dispute, but it may face a claim of “reverse domain hijacking”.

If the software giant loses the dispute and IVH contends that Salesforce.com engaged in ‘reverse domain hijacking’, Salesforce.com could be labeled a “reverse hijacker” by the presiding panel.  “Reverse domain hijacking” is found if the company knew or should have known at the time that it filed the complaint, that it could not prove that forces.com was registered in bad faith. 

Though Salesforce.com has publicly acquired domain names in the past for large sums of money such as the purchase of Data.com for over $1.5 million, it doesn’t mean the company won’t bully smaller companies into giving up their domains if it doesn’t feel like paying the seller’s asking price.

Unfortunately, a finding of reverse domain hijacking likely won’t mean much punishment in terms of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

According to sources online:

The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act does not expressly recognize reverse domain name hijacking and often only limits defendants’ recovery to retention or transference of the domain name. It also fails to provide any remedies for victims of attempted reverse cybersquatting. However, the statute permits some monetary relief where bad faith, reckless disregard or the willful violation of a court order are involved.

However, if Salesforce.com decides it still wants to acquire the domain after being labeled a “reverse hijacker”, the ball will definitely be in IVH’s court, who own hundreds of other prized, generic domains like Coast.com and Turquoise.com.

Even if Salesforce.com loses the dispute (which it should) and somehow avoids the hijacking label, I don’t see this ending well for Salesforce.com.

(Photo of Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com via Flickr)