Thu 6. Mar 2025, 18:33
Domain attorney John Berryhill reflects on two-character domains, their value, their UDRP history and the evolution of the UDRP in a recent article. We took a look at the reflections.
It was prompted by an advertisement shown during this year's Super Bowl. 30 seconds of advertising at the Super Bowl, THE sporting event in the USA, probably cost US$ 8 million. A lot of money for such a short time, but it can reach an audience of millions - theoretically. The ad that caught Berryhill's eye featured the domain wt.com very prominently and far larger than the name of the company the ad was for. The domain's WHOIS shows the last change for February 2024. As of February 12, 2024 at the latest, the domain redirected to weathertech.com, according to archive.org. Berryhill notes that on the last landing page shown before that, the domain wt.com was offered for US$ 3 million. Was that the price paid by Weather Tech? In any case, it is well below the US$ 8 million for the 30 advertising seconds at the Super Bowl. So what is a reasonable price for such a two-character domain if the advertisement fades after 30 seconds but the domain remains forever?
The domain wt.com, which originally belonged to an oil company from West Texas, was offered for US$ 500 in 2007 and was probably bought by a third party in 2009. He had to wait a long time before he was able to sell it in February 2024 at a much higher price. For 15 years, he had to say no to all offers that did not meet his expectations. Berryhill is surprised that none of the owners of one of the 47 registered “WT” trademarks in the USA have started UDRP proceedings for the domain wt.com. The situation was different with lh.com, for example, which was the subject of several different proceedings, most recently Lufthansa in UDRP proceedings in 2008, which Lufthansa won because the deciding panel agreed with the complainant: the mass acquisition of two-character domains did not give rise to a right or legitimate interest in the domain within the meaning of No. 4 (a) (ii) of the UDRP rules. In subsequent civil proceedings, the parties reached a settlement and the domain lh.com was transferred to Lufthansa. It is not known what Lufthansa paid for it.
The view taken by the panel in the lh.com dispute in 2008, that registering domains in order to sell them does not constitute a right or legitimate interest within the meaning of the UDRP rules, was in a state of flux at the time, says Berryhill. If you look at the UDRP proceedings for two-character domains over the years, 2008 is the turning point. Including the lh.com decision, four out of six cases were decided in favor of the complainants (op.com, xm.com, op.com! and lh.com), but two (rl.com and lv.com) were dismissed. In the eight proceedings decided thereafter, only the dispute over zt.com was decided in favor of the complainant, all others (bb.com, bs.com, yu.com, nf.com, wi.com, kq.com and qw.com) were dismissed. The panel in the kq.com decision states (in contrast to the lh.com panel): “The Respondent is in the business of buying and selling domain names and assisting others to do so and the fact that the Domain Name is connected to a website offering domain names for sale in no way impacts on the Respondent's bona fides.” This is a clear change, the beginnings of which were incorporated into the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) rules. This was developed in the course of the 2012 TLD launch round; in 2015, The Forum became the first dispute resolution tribunal accredited to adjudicate URS proceedings. The URS rules state the following among the other decision factors to be considered (5.9) “5.9.1 Trading in domain names for profit, and holding a large portfolio of domain names, are of themselves not indicia of bad faith under the URS. Such conduct, however, may be abusive in a given case depending on the circumstances of the dispute. The Examiner must review each case on its merits.” Berryhill concludes his article by saying that this wording should be included in the currently discussed revision of the UDRP in order to provide clarity.
You can find John Berryhill's article at:
https://www.internetcommerce.org/blog/t ... berryhill/You can find the UDRP at:
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/help/dndr/udrp-enYou can find out more about the URS at:
https://www.icann.org/urs-en