Research In Motion will soon be in control of the domain names BlackBerry10.com and BlackBerry10.net, after a single-member arbitration panel with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ordered the names transferred to the device maker.
The dotcom URL has directed users to a Google 404 page for months, which triggered a discussion thread over at CrackBerry.com where one user joked that it meant that Google was clearly buying RIM.
BlackBerry 10 is the next operating system from RIM for its BlackBerry line of smartphones and tablets and it is expected to launch in 2013.
RIM has a lot riding on BlackBerry 10, so it makes sense as the company ratchets up its marketing strategy, that it owns the matching domains. In this case, both names were owned by the same person, so RIM was able to file one complaint (WIPO Case D2012-1146).
At the time of this story, BlackBerry10.com continues to send visitors to a Google 404 error page.
Full details of the decision have not yet been published online.
(Image of BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour via BlackBerry.com)