The domain sundevils.com was first registered back in 1999 and throughout the years has had a lot of different uses, including re-directing to the website of Diablo Sun Devils, a naturist club founded in the San Francisco Bay Area that publishes nude photographs of women online. Its motto, “Dedicated to bringing the freedom and joy of social nudism and naturism to women everywhere.”
For Arizona State University, home of the Sun Devils, it looks like enough is enough.
A complaint (case no. 1393853) has now been filed with the National Arbitration Forum (“NAF”).
Though the complainant isn’t officially known just yet, it would only make sense that Arizona State filed the domain dispute over sundevils.com, which has claim to variety of trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office dating back to the 1980s.
ASU does use thesundevils.com, which re-directs to its official athletics site on thesundevils.cstv.com, but unsuspecting visitors who type sundevils.com into the browser’s address bar might find themselves in for a shocking surprise.
In the mid-2000s, the owner of sundevils.com did for a time, re-direct the URL to thesundevils.com according to screenshot history, but considering a number of factors such as having trademark rights, this could be a quick open and shut case for the National Arbitration Forum.
In 2008, the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona won a dispute over the domain arizonawildcats.com.
Discussion: Deadspin
(Photo of Sparky “hand waver” via Arizona State University)