Big Firms Go Following .Mobi Domain Names

A sign of strength for .mobi? Big firms file UDRPs to get .mobi domains.

Are big firms starting to pay more attention to .mobi? Recent UDRP filings with WIPO and National Arbitration Forum show this may be the case.

In the past two months, Capital One, Airtran, Tufts, State Farm, and Primerica have all filed UDRP complaints to get their hands on .mobi domain names.

Since .mobi was released there have been 51 .mobi disputes filed with National Arbitration Forum and 100 at World Intellectual Property Forum. Of these, only 8 have been denied: ufa.mobi, interactivebrokers.mobi, xxxx.mobi, sania.mobi, mps.mobi, assurant.mobi (denied twice), and telpay.mobi.

Of course just since someone files a UDRP doesn’t mean they intend to use the domain if they win. Here are some of the big names that have won .mobi arbitration cases in the past and what they’re doing with the domains now:

Vonage – does not resolve
Playboy – does not resolve
Intuit – does not resolve
Harvard Business Review – does not resolve
Craftsman – does not resolve
Morgan Stanley – forwards to .com
Wine Spectator – forwards to .com
Limited Brands – does not resolve
Raytheon – does not resolve
Texas Instruments – in use as mobile web site
American Airlines – amazingly, American Airlines doesn’t even forward AmericanAirlines.mobi to its main web site, even though it advertisies aa.com is mobile capable.
Standard & Poors – does not resolve
Barnes & Noble – does not resolve