Pepsi Goes After Arabic Bebsi.com Web Site
Thursday, January 6th, 2011
Company filed domain name dispute.
[Update: Pepsi won the case.] PepsiCo, Inc. has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization to get the domain name Bebsi.com.
This isn’t just a typo of Pepsi as it may appear. In fact, ‘b’ is far away from ‘p’ on the keyboard. Bebsi is actually an Arabic way of saying Pepsi.
Bebsi.com hosts a large forum, and one quick look at the forum will help you understand why Pepsi is going after the domain name:
Google’s translator doesn’t do justice to the page, but it appears to cover a range of topics from women to family to tourism.
Pepsi has filed 40 UDRP cases before this one and hasn’t lost one. Its biggest win was for PepsiCola.com, which it won in a 2001 National Arbitration Forum case.
Further Reading:
The domain registrant is a famous domainer in Saudi that owns over 5,600+ domains. He also operates an enom reseller account under the name “altasjeel.com”. He has registered bebsi.com, .net and .org.
I like drinking “Bebsi” while wearing a Babushka…
The reason I think is there is no letter that sounds as “p” in Arabic, so they end up as literally saying bebsi.
If they want to communicate they’re products to Arabic speakers, they could get the Arabic transliteration to the word Pepsi (Like Chanel, Remy Marten, IKEA i.e)
WIPO Ordered the transfer of CocaCola .com in Hebrew a couple years ago: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2008/d2008-1843.html
Abdu,
Altasjeel.com is domain registration service provider and DOES not own bebsi.com, he is just one of our customers.
Pretty clear violation. If you take the bebsi logo and flip it top to bottom its a mirror image of pepsi… same font and all.
yes, ACE is correct. i can confirm that there is no ‘p’ sounds in arabic. They write Panda as ‘Bandha’ (no ‘d’ either)
In Thai, Pepsi is pronounced Bebsi and literally spelt that way i.e เป๊ปซี่ . The Thai language has 44 consonants and 22 vowels sufficient to write something that sounds like PEPSI which would probably sound too fierce for a soft drink ..LOL! The word for coke sounds like GOKE with a “G”
If you speak Scottish droll then Pepsi will be “Pearpsee”
I remember the funniest thing ever was being in a Thai restaurant in London hearing a Scottish man asking a Thai waiter who was struggling with english for a “Pearpsee” I had to translate for the thirsty Scot!
I can’t imagine someone would be so daring to make the site Bebsi like they have done. I had to laugh at their blatant style. Could this be a conspiracy to get SEO’s to think about soft drinks called Pepsi and have nothing to do with the characters previously mentioned in the first part of the blog?
I also reckon Pepsi should buy Bebsigola.com and Bebsigolar.com and Pearpsee.com for the Thai and Scottish market! They are still up for grabs!
Why don’t search engines embrace Favicons like Yandex have done? Could it be that they are concerned about even further disputes about the Favicon colours and dimensions?? LOL !
Well, it seems that no-one has bought Bebsigolar yet but this page will get much more traffic than usual today I believe.
Google Bebsi in Middle East google domains, you will see pepsi’s search adverts saying DID YOU MEAN PEPSI? That’s so smart!Q
Update: Pepsi won
They won, yet almost 6 months later, the http://www.Bebsi.com site is still online.
Has a lawsuit to challenge the decision been filed?
@ UDRPtalk – it looks like Pepsi’s law firm has the domain name but has failed to change the nameservers. I guess taking down the site wasn’t so urgent after the lawyers got their fees.