TechCrunch is reporting that Twitter is going after the domain name Twittersearch.com, that was registered by its owner in March 2007. Twitter launched its popular micro-blogging service a year before, in March 2006.
Twitter late last week filed a UDRP complaint, notably its first ever since the company was founded, in an effort to obtain ownership over the (currently parked) domain name twittersearch.com – as you can see here.
Obviously, Twitter is right to do this, since the domain is likely to cause some confusion, although we should note Twitter hasn’t managed to secure a trademark for the term ‘twitter’ in the United States so far, despite multiple attempts.
A compliance review is currently pending according to the World Internataionl Property Organization (better known as WIPO). In the same list of cases over at WIPO, Pocket Kings the company that owns Full Tilt Poker is going after typo domain names.
A look at a rough traffic estimate provided by Compete, shows TwitterSearch.com receives several thousand visitors per month.
To avoid a trademark issue, other sites like TwitterCounter.com, a site which receives over 1 million visitors per month and provides stats, graphs and widgets for Twitter users, licenses the Twitter name from Twitter, Inc. Probably a smart move short term, but long term it might be in the company’s interest to re-brand. The company also owns Twittermail.com.
Oddly enough, Twitter Inc hasn’t gone after the owner of Twiter.com (a popular typo of Twitter), who is obviously trying to trick unsuspecting visitors into clicking on ads, but as TechCrunch points out: ” Twitter hasn’t managed to secure a trademark for the term ‘twitter’ in the United States so far, despite multiple attempts.” So winning a case for Twiter, might be a lot harder than winning a case for TwitterSearch.com.
7 replies on “Twitter files UDRP complaint against owner of domain: TwitterSearch.com”
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tweetups dotcom and Norman Buffong, Domain Names. Domain Names said: Twitter files UDRP complaint against owner of domain name: TwitterSearch.com http://goo.gl/fb/HFVMX […]
[…] Twitter has filed its first UDRP case against the owner of TwitterSearch.com. The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) is a process established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the resolution of disputes regarding the registration of internet domain names. The UDRP currently applies to all .biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, and .org top-level domains, and some country code top-level domains. […]
[…] Twitter’s trademark guidelines, and its recent case against the owner of twittersearch.com, people continue to buy twitter domains, and worse, they register names by combining trademarks of […]
[…] domains unless you try to sell this domain to them with a ridiculous asking price. Example here: https://fusible.com//2010/12/twitter-f…tersearch-com/ __________________ Best Funny Videos – GAGS.NET – Auction: Flipper.net – […]
[…] in Dec. 2010, Twitter Inc. filed a case against the owner of the domain Twittersearch.com with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property […]
[…] The only other case filed to date by Twitter Inc with WIPO involved twittersearch.com back in 2010, a domain dispute that wasn’t decided by WIPO, but the company still was successful in having the name transferred. […]
[…] Twitter’s only other case filed to date with WIPO involved twittersearch.com back in 2010, a domain dispute that also never reached a panel, but was transferred to Twitter. […]