Heineken Wants Heineken.tel Domain Name

Brewer files complaint with World Intellectual Property Association.

Heineken Espana, SA, has filed for arbitration at World Intellectual Property Organization to get the domain name Heineken.tel.

.Tel is a fresh domain name designed to be a business card on the web. Since .tel domain names can’t be developed as traditional web sites, I’ve wondered how an arbitrator would decide that a .tel domain was registered and used in bad faith. In this case, the owner of the domain clearly associates it with beer, writing:

EL AMOR A LA CERVEZA NOS UNIRA PRONTO TENDREMOS UN FORO PARA COMPARTIR NUESTRAS EXPERIENCIAS CON LA CERVEZA.

You don’t need to know much Spanish to know it’s regarding beer. It basically states there will soon be a forum to discuss beer. The owner’s email address also starts with ‘cerveza’.

This is the third domain dispute filed for a .tel domain name, and none of them have been decided yet. One has to wonder why Heineken’s lawyers didn’t get this domain name during the sunrise period, when it would have cost a lot less to register it than filing for arbitration.