Apple Files Complaint Against iPhone Porn Sites for Domain Name
Apple is sending a message to the porn industry – it’s not okay to use their brands to promote pornography.
The leading tech corporation filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization on Thursday after discovering that several porn operators were using their iPhone brand as their domain names, Domain Name Wire reported.
Following the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, the Cupertino-based company listed seven iPhone-related domains that it hopes to gain control of, which currently forwarded to x-rated sites.
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Those include: iphonecamforce.com, iphonecam4s.com, iphoneporn4s.com, iphonesex4s.com, iphonexxxforce.com, iphone4s.com, porn4iphones.com.
Apple has purportedly fallen behind on registering domain names before the release of their products.
They did not gain control of their iPhone4.com domain until July 2011, nearly one year after the release of the phone on June 24, 2010. The domain name now forwards to the company’s actual iPhone pages.
Many are uncertain why Apple in this case turned to filing a UDRP complaint in order to win control over their product-related domain names.
MacRumors.com cited a few reasons why the company would choose to take this particular route, including: the domain name’s owner demanded more compensation than Apple was willing to offer, the domain name’s owner was unresponsive to Apple’s attempts to contact them or Apple felt a sense of urgency to resolve the issue due to the nature of the sites.
DNW also commented that the iPhone4s.com domain name was “particularly troubling to Apple given that unsuspecting Internet surfers [were] likely to type that in.”
Some consumers believed it was “silly” to go after other domain names excluding iphone4s.com, a reasonable cause of worry.
“What is Apple planning on doing with porn4iphone.com?” roow110 commented on MacRumors.com. “Is pornography the next industry Apple wishes to dominate?”
Others found it necessary that the corporation protect their trademark and brand.
“Trademark holders have to actively defend their mark. If they don’t it can hurt their chances when real cases come up. It isn’t so much apple going after ridiculous infringers as it is doing what the law requires,” Yankee penned. “They can also go after them just to keep their brand from being tarnished.”
LDMartin1959 added, “If Apple fails to protect their trademark by pursuing those who use it without their permission, they can [lose] that trademark.”
ThanksSteve came up with a solution for Apple’s domain name problems: buy up all their future product name domains now, i.e. iPhone5, iPad3 and etc.
“What will it cost them? $200? Why wait for expensive lawsuits. They can also buy the other variations that are [mentioned] here.”
Though the variations can be endless, it remains clear that even if Apple is one step behind in the domain realm, it will continue to protect its brand.
Apple’s complaint case number is D2011-1897 with the World Intellectual Property Organization.
