Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton Archives

iPad3.com domain quickly turned over to Apple’s IP lawyers following complaint

The domain iPad3.com is now in the hands of Apple’s IP lawyers at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. It appears the previous name’s owner didn’t even want to wait for an arbitration panel to issue the inevitable decision, and has instead decided to quickly transfer the domain following a complaint that was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at the end of June.

In the last 24 hours, the Whois record for iPad3.com was updated to reflect the change in ownership from Global Access to Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, a law firm that has represented the company in several patent and trademark infringement cases.

Given the speed of the domain transfer from the time the dispute was filed until now, it’s safe to assume a WIPO panel hadn’t even issued a ruling for Case Number D2012-1319, as the entire process can takes weeks and months. The case will end up being terminated, just as the cases for iPhone5.com and UsedMacs.com were terminated.

Ultimately, the next step is for the name to be transferred from Apple’s lawyers to Apple, as it was likely bleeding traffic when people typed www.ipad3.com into their web browser looking for “The new iPad” only to find themselves on a parked page filled with links.

Chances are Apple will not change a thing when it comes to marketing “The new iPad” and will simply forward the name to its iPad page on Apple.com.

At the time of this story, iPad3.com still redirects to a variety of different parking services with Above.com.

[UPDATE 3 July 12:. Apple has begun forwarding iPad3.com to its web site. DNW reports Apple is tracking the traffic it gets from this domain using a tracking code.]

[UPDATE 2 July 6:. Case Number D2012-1319 has now been terminated at WIPO.]

[UPDATE 1 July 5:. iPad3.com has been transferred from Above.com’s name servers to Apple’s name servers.]

Talking about this story: Techmeme, The Next Web, CNET, PC Magazine, GameZone, Macworld UK, Australian Macworld, SlashGear, GMA News, MacRumors, Network World, iDownloadblog.com, ITProPortal, Marketing Land, WebProNews, mediabistro.com, 36kr.com, maclife.de, iJailbreak.com, Memeburn and ZDNet

(Image of the new iPad via Apple.com)

Apple’s IP lawyers get control of domains like UsedMacs.com before case decided

Just over a week ago, Apple Computer filed a domain name dispute with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over five names registered to Wachter Consulting Inc.

Four of the five domains named in WIPO case number D2011-1866, have now been transferred from Wachter Consulting Inc. to Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, a law firm that has successfully represented Apple in the past in dozens of patent and trademark infringement cases.

The domains that were transferred to Apple’s name servers include imacstore.com, macdaily.com, mactimes.com, and usedmacs.com.

It appears the best of the bunch, applestores.com, is still in the possession of Wachter Consulting, according to WHOIS records.

Although the case is still listed as ‘Active’ online with WIPO, it’s possible Wachter Consulting decided to turn over the names even before a decision was handed down.

Chances are the case will remain ‘Active’ until all of the names have been transferred, voluntarily or otherwise.

[Updated November 10, 2011 3:19am EST: Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton has now taken ownership of AppleStores.com. The law firm also took ownership of アップルストア.com (‘Apple Store’ in Japanese).]

(Photo of Apple Power Mac G4 with an Apple Studio Display via Collin Grady)