Yale Wants Its Mobile Web

Yale University goes following Yale.mobi.

Ivy League institution Yale University believes in the mobile web. Or at least it believes in protecting its name.

The university has filed a UDRP arbitration at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for the domain Yale.mobi.

Of course just since the first thing that may come to mind is the prestigious university doesn’t mean that this domain is cybersquatting. It could be registered for someone with the last name Yale. Or the college in Wales. Furthermore, the domain hosts a free GoDaddy parking page that doesn’t include any specific paid links. There are plenty of fair uses — counting a disgruntled student who’s mad he didn’t get accepted to the school.

The domain is owned by Interwebgroup, LLC. The firm’s web site reads:

To successfully market products or services online requires an integrated approach using a variety of E-Commerce marketing techniques that ultimately feed and support one another. To effectively manage these initiatives requires sound decision-making backed by marketing analytics. These analytics provide the data necessary to move quickly to emphasize those initiatives that are working and eliminate those that are not.

In an e-mail, Interwebgroup owner Michael Hodge wrote to Reglike:

Someone at yale needs to look at their legal expenses. I offered to sell it to them for 900 dollars and they have spent probably in excess of 5 thousand in fees and expenses and we are just getting started. I will fight it. Yale does not even own Yale.com

He has a point. Why ought to Yale University get the domain and not Yale Materials Handling Corporation, which owns the .com?

I suspect this case will come down to the details of the interaction between Yale and Hodges that prompted the $900 offer.

[Update 12/22/08: Hodge didn’t respond to the WIPO complaint and lost the proceeding.]