WordPress Foundation files cybersquatting complaints…and wins.
WordPress Foundation appears to be more aggressively going after people that use WordPress in their domain names.
The group has won six cybersquatting complaints in the past month.
In all cases, it seems that WordPress was going after operating websites using the WordPress name in their second level domain name. None of the domain name owners responded to the complaints, and it appears WordPress first sent a demand letter to the owners before filing the cybersquatting complaints.
In one case, the owner of the domain names asked for $10,000 to transfer the names.
It probably doesn’t make sense to challenge WordPress over this, as the owner of TheWordPressHelpers.com discovered last year.
Here are the domain names WordPress has recovered:
- Wordpress-Toronto.com and WordpressSupport.com
- WordPressWebsitecare.com
- Wordpressmaintenanceservices.com
- Wordpresstheme.services
- Wordpresstrainingguides.com
- Plugins-wordpress.org
Dan Poynor says
WordPress.org say it’s okay to own a domain with “wordpress” in it as long as it redirects to another domain that doesn’t include their trademarked name, specifically…
“If you already have a domain with “WordPress” in it, redirecting it to the “wp” equivalent is fine, just as long as the main one users see and you promote doesn’t contain “WordPress” and in the long term you should consider transferring the old one to the Foundation.”
As long as those at risk redirect as requested seems like they should be okay, you’d think.
It would good if domain name purchasers were made aware of potential trademark infringement risks somehow before spending $ on domain names. I see domains with “wordpress” in them going for up to $25K on GoDaddy. GoDaddy doesn’t check if the trademark owners are selling the questionable domains so it’s buyer beware, or get screwed.