Apple Finally Trying to Acquire 'iPods.com' Domain Name

[MacRumors]

TechCrunch notes that Apple has finally gotten around to trying to acquire the ipods.com domain name, fully nine years after the domain was registered by another entity. The move comes in the form of a complaint filed under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy yesterday.

It apparently took the Cupertino company a little over 9 full years to decide that, instead, it should be the rightful owner of the domain name, which until earlier this morning took people to some shady mp3 download site (though it no longer resolves, it seems).

Yesterday, Apple lodged a complaint, positing that the domain name should be transfered over to them. Apple of course owns the ‘iPod’ trademark, so my guess it the dispute will be resolved rather rapidly. The company currently owns iPod.com, iPhone.com, iTunes.com, iMac.com, iWork.com and many other related domain names.

It is not unusual for Apple to file complaints seeking to have domain names closely related to its products transferred to its possession, and the company has in fact had a number of domains including macosxserver.com and macosxlion.com transferred to its possession over the last few months, either by settlement with the prior owner or by decree of the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

What is unusual, however, is the amount of time Apple waited before attempting to gain control of ipods.com. And not all domain transfers require such complaints to be filed, indicating that the company has been unable to reach an agreement with the domain's owner and is thus seeking help from regulatory and standards bodies at this time.

Article Link: Apple Finally Trying to Acquire 'iPods.com' Domain Name

 

[Mattstkc]

the "ipod" TM wasn't assigned to apple until 05. It was owned by someone else. The previous TM holder should be the only one who can file that complaint.

Apple introduced an iPod 4 years before it technically owned the TM. Who's violating patent and trademark law now?

 

[2 Replies]

IMO, with technology that changes so quickly there really should be a statute of limitations on how long a defendant's domain was purchased in which you can file your complaint.
Seeing how FAST iPods became popular, and how LONG it took them to file,
I say screw Apple.
If Apple filed within a year or two... I'd say sure. Just take it away.
But they filed nerely a DECADE later, LONG after iPod's hayday in popularity.
We're well into the decline of traditional iPods. (IMO, the iPod Touch isn't an iPod if its iPod functionality is merely an app side-note to its main use, which is for running other apps and games.)
I mean, they're not just trying to 'acquire' it, they're just trying to take it.
It'd be different if they made an offer to purchase it, or if they purchased it or filed their suit when they registered the trademark.

It may not be the case here, but what if the company was providing Data Services for IPOs? Or an Online Database Service of IP addresses?
Totally unrelated to iPods and those would not steal away any customers from Apple. (and really, the made up name iPod makes little sense for what it is.. a music player)
Yeah, this case it's a domain camper... but the camper has money invested in the domain as well. Those people do have to pay for every year to keep the domain.
And having a camper sit on a similar domain does provide some benefit to Apple. The camper isn't a competitor, but they're stopping a TRUE competitor from snagging the domain and redirecting all traffic to their competing product page. Or worse, it could have been snagged by a malicious group mimicking Apple's page to steal information, money and identity information, causing Apple's image and reputation to be damaged.
Having an obvious unrelated placeholder page sit on the domain is at most benign, so Apple should AT LEAST reimburse the campers for those years, especially if Apple expects to just take the domain away. (It'd be a pithy sum too, so don't get panties in a bunch. $150 or so is NOTHING for Apple.)

 

[spillproof]

Did someone just discover they didn't own iPods.com?

How would you even approach Stevey to tell him that?

RAGE RAGE RAGE

 

[djpaetkau]

Greedy camper

I can't be positive it was for ipods.com, but I recall hearing years ago about a domain camper asking for millions for a domain because he knew how popular the product was and wanted to take advantage of it. Sure, Apple may be willing to pay huge sums of money for domains that they actually plan on using (iCloud, for example), but considering this would be used as nothing more than a redirect to apple.com/ipod, I can understand why they're not willing to shell out big bucks. Given how long it's been, with traditional iPods now lagging in popularity, I'm surprised Apple is going after the domain at all... though perhaps Apple is looking to make better use of the iPod name in the future, given the cachet it has from its massive success.

 

[b0blndsy]

How much will they pay to the owner of the ipods.com. I remember they paid millions to the one who owned iphone.com

 

[AmpSkillz]

the "ipod" TM wasn't assigned to apple until 05. It was owned by someone else. The previous TM holder should be the only one who can file that complaint.

Apple introduced an iPod 4 years before it technically owned the TM. Who's violating patent and trademark law now?

Why are you assuming apple did not legally obtain permission.

 

[AmpSkillz]

How much will they pay to the owner of the ipods.com. I remember they paid millions to the one who owned iphone.com

They aren't planning to pay anything, seems they are legally trying to obtain it under the premise that they own the iPod TM

 

[AmpSkillz]

Did someone just discover they didn't own iPods.com?

How would you even approach Stevey to tell him that?

RAGE RAGE RAGE

I doubt it was a surprise..

Apparently Apple doesn't own the iPhones.com iMacs.com or iPads.com domains either, so I wonder why they are concerned with ipods.com

 

[d0minick]

Well I own osxiserver.com. So I am interested to see how this plays out. 11.0 is hopefully around the corner.

 

[deannnnn]

I doubt it was a surprise..

Apparently Apple doesn't own the iPhones.com iMacs.com or iPads.com domains either, so I wonder why they are concerned with ipods.com

That's exactly why I was thinking. Do people really go to ipods.com looking for Apple products? If anything they'll go to google and type in "iPods."

 

[Krovem]

I doubt it was a surprise..

Apparently Apple doesn't own the iPhones.com iMacs.com or iPads.com domains either, so I wonder why they are concerned with ipods.com

Thats really weird. Maybe they dont know that they dont own those yet haha!

 

[dukekid21]

lol

ipads.com is next. trololollolol