Why Apple didn't registered iPhone6 .com and iPhone6Plus .com domains?

[Stane]

I was a bit surprised to see that Apple didn't registered iPhone6 .com and iPhone6Plus .com domains..
Any thoughts why they didn't registered them?
iPhone6Plus .com was registered a few months ago, I'm pretty sure they knew a long time ago their new phone will be called iPhone6Plus.. Quite irresponsible for such a successful company, IMO.

 

[FX]

If they want them... they will just take them.

FX

 

[N-A]

If they want them... they will just take them.

FX

And set an example.

 

[Stane]

It seems it's easier for their legal department to take them than hand register them by itself
Considering they own all previous iPhone model .com domains, it's just a matter of time they will own these too..

 

[N-A]

Why? A legal assistant makes high $XX,XXX/yr and a JD/LLM make $XXX,XXX+/yr on a general counsel. Why take an hour of their time to hand register names, when they can take 5 minutes to write 1 letter; filling in the blanks, and claim them all?

Supposing they took 1 hour and made $250,000/yr, that's $118 for an hour 5 days/wk 8/hr days.

Economy is bad. Save money. Write 1 letter and get what you want.

 

[tomcarl]

I was lead to believe Nominative Fair Use doctrine will require demonstrating the case of bad faith before Apple were to forcibly acquire these domains from the registrant, which is not free or as easy as snapping a finger if the registrant never showed any signs of bad faith and set up an ad-free "blog" or "fansite" about the iPhone with disclaimers posted, which could still be financially valuable to him if he's passively promoting his other websites in posts.

Phillip Morris had to file a $1,000 UDRP for a BS hyphen domain with
'marlboro' in it. Although not advised because most cases will end in the trademark holder's favor (especially with these giants), it's bad business, and not worth the hassle and could risk a lot of headaches, a registration of a domain with a trademark in it is not automatic infringement.

In this case it was plain irresponsible and a big fail on Apple's marketing dept or whoever is assigned to oversee their domain names/websites by not registering something as simple as iphone6 and iphone6plus.com. Bad strategy for a company to feel comfortable enough to simply have attorneys send threatening letters or use intimidation when the time comes to it, should've just took a second to register it from the jump.

 

[gilescoley]

I agree, why not register them which takes about 2 minutes (bulk register) and cost $8 each, rather than the hassle of sending letters, and possible UDRPs at $1500 a pop, its just seems so much easier to grab all the various words in the main extensions

 

[Stane]

That's my point exactly. After all, they bought iPhone.com from Michael Kovatch for 7-figure sum and they forgot to buy iPhone6.com for a few bucks.. Also, marketing wise, quite unprofessional. I'm sure both domains had a lot of traffic these days.

 

[gilescoley]

I dont think companies like that forget, I think they cant be bothered and can just as easily send a nasty letter

 

[Stane]

I hope so. Yet, Microsoft forgot to renew hotmail.co.uk several years ago.. Foursquare also forgot to renew their domain at one point. I guess even the big ones make mistakes

 

[gilescoley]

I hope so. Yet, Microsoft forgot to renew hotmail.co.uk several years ago.. Foursquare also forgot to renew their domain at one point. I guess even the big ones make mistakes

True but if you look at those big companies and how many names they own and how many they forget to register, its like 1 in a billion chance, to give you an idea how many these big firms own

Microsoft 65,000 names
Amazon 26,000 names
General Electric 18,000 names
AOL 13,6000 names
Proctor & Gamble 10,000 names
Yahoo 21,000 names
Google 11,000 names
Johnson & Johnson 26,000 names

 

[N-A]

I agree, why not register them which takes about 2 minutes (bulk register) and cost $8 each, rather than the hassle of sending letters, and possible UDRPs at $1500 a pop, its just seems so much easier to grab all the various words in the main extensions

iPhone6.com was created in 2006 and iPhone9.com was created April 2nd, 2007 (maybe saw the extreme future?). TM domainers were putting risk before reward buying these names since the introduction of the iPhone on June 29, 2007. Who was to know that the iPhone would be a big hit and it reach iPhone6 by now (2008 registration)? What if it turned out to be like the Apple Pippin and a failure? Or what if they changed the name completely to rebrand? The iPhone9.com would be a "risk" as it was registered at an announcement of an iPhone being released, when it could have been called the iFone or something similar for branding purposes.

All are stupid registrations, but if Apple wants them, they will take them.

True but if you look at those big companies and how many names they own and how many they forget to register, its like 1 in a billion chance, to give you an idea how many these big firms own

Microsoft 65,000 names
Amazon 26,000 names
General Electric 18,000 names
AOL 13,6000 names
Proctor & Gamble 10,000 names
Yahoo 21,000 names
Google 11,000 names
Johnson & Johnson 26,000 names

Yahoo! owns some great domains... they set too high of reserves on the mediocre ones though, leading in only 10 sales it appears. Sandwich.com being the most expensive domain at $137k. I'm surprised Subway didn't snatch that up.

 

[Soofi]

why do Apple need iphone1.com, iphone2.com, iphone3.com, iphone4.com, iphone 5.com, iphone6.com, and so on when they have iPhone.com is my concern... lol

 

[gilescoley]

Yahoo! owns some great domains... they set too high of reserves on the mediocre ones though, leading inonly 10 sales it appears. Sandwich.com being the most expensive domain at $137k. I'm surprised Subway didn't snatch that up. :P

Most of these companies dont sell the names though, they just own them for brand protection etc

CBS own some nice ones as well, see below

Auctions.com
Browser.com
Builder.com
Buying.com
Chat.com
Com.com
Community.com
Computers.com
Download.com
Downloads.com
Freeware.com
Gaming.com
Kids.com
Labs.com
MarketPlace.com
MP3.com
News.com
Online.com
Radio.com
Search.com
Shareware.com
Shopper.com
Silicon.com
Store.com
TV.com
Updates.com
Upload.com
Welcome.com

 

[Helmuts]

True but if you look at those big companies and how many names they own and how many they forget to register, its like 1 in a billion chance, to give you an idea how many these big firms own

Microsoft 65,000 names
Amazon 26,000 names
General Electric 18,000 names
AOL 13,6000 names
Proctor & Gamble 10,000 names
Yahoo 21,000 names
Google 11,000 names
Johnson & Johnson 26,000 names

.. those are probably ordinary extensions .. you have forgotten that some new domain extensions (like .buy for amazon) can drasticly change these numbers

 

[gilescoley]

you have forgotten that some new domain extensions (like.buy for amazon) can drasticly change these numbers

New extension will have no effect at all...95% of companies will have never heard of them or have no interest in them, the odd big company like Amazon might register 1 or 2, but that just for brand protection, like they did with cloud.co.

 

[Stane]

New extension will have no effect at all...95% of companies will have never heard of them or have no interest in them, the odd big company like Amazon might register 1 or 2, but that just for brand protection, like they did with cloud.co.

I think @Helmuts Meskonis thought on Amazon buying the rights for whole .buy extension.
They bought it for $4.6M and can now register what ever they like under .buy extension. However, I agree with you. Most companies will for now stick to .coms.

 

[gilescoley]

Yeah, that the exception to the rule though

 

[Helmuts]

w

CBS own some nice ones as well, see below

Auctions.com
Browser.com
Builder.com
Buying.com
Chat.com
Com.com
Community.com
Computers.com
Download.com
Downloads.com
Freeware.com
Gaming.com
Kids.com
Labs.com
MarketPlace.com
MP3.com
News.com
Online.com
Radio.com
Search.com
Shareware.com
Shopper.com
Silicon.com
Store.com
TV.com
Updates.com
Upload.com
Welcome.com

wow!! What a list

 

[ohassim]

ipad.com is not owned by Apple - read a article some time ago that it was registered way before the iPad launch and if they want it they would have to buy it.