Research In Motion (RIM) filed a complaint this week with WIPO over BlackberryTablet.com, ahead of the company’s launch of its own tablet in early 2011.
Although Research In Motion has named its tablet, Playbook, the company is going after the owner of BlackberryTablet.com who first registered the domain name nearly 1 year ago on January 24, 2010.
Ever since Apple introduced the iPad, tablets have been in demand, but this is the first such case filed with WIPO over a tablet domain name, but it likely won’t be the last. According to the reports from CES 2011, over 80 tablet launches will be taking place in 2011.
Research In Motion isn’t the only company missing its name
A quick glance at some of the bigger names launching tablets, shows that Research In Motion isn’t the only company who doesn’t own their name + tablet. Only a handful of companies appear to have registered their name in time. Not even the mighty Apple which leads the tablet market with its iPad owns Appletablet.com. The domain name was first registered back in 2006 and serves as an online resource guide for Apple products. Apple doesn’t own iPad.com either.
Motorola which is launching the Xoom in the first quarter of 2011 doesn’t own MotorolaTablet.com. The owner has the name up for sale.
Toshiba missed registering its domain name. Toshibatablet.com was registered in February 2010 to an Adam Feber who currently has the domain parked at GoDaddy.
Dell, so far, might be the only exception in the lot. The company does own Delltablet.com and it redirects the domain to its homepage on Dell.com. The company which launched its own tablet called “Streak” in 2010, also owns DellStreak.com. And if Dell pays attention to the domain aftermarket, it has a chance of getting the generic domain streak.com, which has been put up for sale with a reserve price range of 10,000 – 24,999 EUR in the upcoming GreatDomains auction starting January 20th.
Samsungtablet.com, Panasonictablet.com – neither name is owned by the company and you’ll be hard pressed to find very many manufacturers that own their company name + tablet.
Research In Motion and WIPO
Research In Motion has filed dozens of complaints over the years with WIPO over domain names and it has had success in having a large portion of the names transferred. Cases the company have won include RIM.com, researchinmotion.com, blackberryworld.com, blackberryguru.com, and dozens of other cases.
Currently, Research In Motion has other cases active with WIPO where a decision has not been made, including blackberrybing.com and blackberrybridge.com.
As the tablet market heats up, companies will be suiting up to duke it out with owners of domain names.
But there’s one domain owner who won’t have to worry about a battle – he’ll just have to worry whether to turn down huge offers or to develop the domain name into the top online tablet destination – Aron Meystedt of XF Investments who owns Tablets.com. As I first reported in the beginning of November 2010, Aron who also owns the first .com domain ever registered (symbolics.com), acquired Tablets.com for an undisclosed amount.
If you’re actually curious about the Blackberry Playbook which is expected to be forthcoming in Q1 of 2011, here’s a preview of its features.