I noticed a UDRP was filed against the 4 letter AATI.com domain name at the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) within the past couple of days. The case is #1701430. It caught my attention because it is a valuable 4 letter .com domain name, and nothing really stood out for me when I thought of the “AATI” initials.
Mike Berkens shared an interesting tweet about the domain name:
The 4 letter .com https://t.co/UZgJZ5wJTt which was just bought for $2,510 one month ago on @namejet hit with UDRP #domains #trademarks
— The Domains (@thedomains) November 10, 2016
According to NameBio, AATI.com did indeed sell on NameJet for $2,510 on October 11th. I did not have this domain name backordered, so I can’t tell you how many bidders participated or how many bids were placed. The domain name was created in September of 2002, making it 14 years old. Based on the admin email and name servers found in a DomainTools historical Whois search result, it appears the domain name was auctioned on NameJet after it expired.
Prior to its expiration, it appears that a company called Advanced Analogic Technologies owned this domain name. Because the NAF does not reveal the name of the complainant until after the UDRP decision is published, I am not sure if this is the entity that filed the UDRP complaint. There seems to be quite a few groups that use AATI for their initials including Advanced Analytical Technologies, Inc., American Association of Teachers of Italian, American Advanced Technicians Institute, American Advanced Technicians Institute, Association of AMI Teachers of Ireland, AATi Ltd, and quite a few others. Aati also appears to be a first, last name, and possibly even a nickname some people use.
Not only does the number of entities that use AATI as an acronym make it more difficult to know in advance who filed the UDRP, but in my opinion, it also makes it more difficult to prove all of the elements of the UDRP. If a company let its acronym domain name expire, whether intentionally or by accident, the winner of the domain name auction should not be penalized, especially if the domain name is valuable because of its descriptive nature.
Update: The respondent  prevailed in the UDRP and will retain the domain name.
He seems to be a collector of 4L.com’s, not his first rodeo, last time Berryhill represented him.
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/text/2010/d2010-0542.html
Good to see this isn’t over a crappy “chinese premium” LLLL .com 😛 As Rich said, they will most likely fight it.
rdnh
may be a similar situation to vtp.com, but let’s hope not with the same result-
http://www.adrforum.com/domaindecisions/1195961.htm
Company buys 3-letter domain from BuyDomains for $30k(?) that BuyDomains has held for several years, the buyer parks it, and the same month is hit with a UDRP filing and the domain is ordered transferred
VTP is still with Bigfoot in that 2008 case. Did they sue?
Went Public on Aug 4, 2005 / NASDAQ:AATI
Headquarters:
Santa Clara, NM
Website:
http://www.analogictech.com
Purchased by skyworks 2012
this is about when it was shelved not redirected and no longer listed on Nasdaq.
It will be interesting what kind of excuse they use for letting it drop.
UDRP was won by the domain owner, who was represented by John Berryhill: http://www.udrpsearch.com/naf/1701430