Nintendo files complaint over WiiU.com

Firm states owner is cybersquatting with WiiU.com domain name.

Nintendo released WiiU, the successor to its popular Wii video game system Wii, in November. But it was missing a key online marketing ingredient: the domain name WiiU.com.

Now it has filed a cybersquatting complaint with World Intellectual Property Forum in an effort to get the domain name.

The whois record for the domain shows a registration date of 2004, well ahead of Nintendo came up with the name for its fresh system. It was likely registered since it was a four letter domain.

But whois records make it difficult to determine when the current owner purchased the domain name. The domain expired in January, but the privacy service and whois record is the same as ahead of it expired, so the owner may have renewed it. The nameservers on the domain changed following it went into expired status, which is a sign that a fresh owner may have picked it up.

Regardless, I find it odd that Nintendo filed a complaint rather than just buying the domain. It’s available for a fixed price of $8,499 on BuyDomains, which is a modest price to pay for a huge product name like this…especially when the UDRP isn’t a slam dunk.