A UDRP was recently filed by the European Handball Federation for the valuable EHF.com domain name. The UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It is WIPO Case D2016-0057.
It looks like the European Handball Federation uses EuroHandball.com for its website domain name.
EHF.com is currently registered privately, and it has been under privacy for quite some time. This domain name has a creation date of September of 1999. The domain name appears to be parked at DomainNameSales.com. I checked NameBio, and I do not see any public sales history for this domain name, and I did not see any references to this domain name being sold.
Three letter .com domain names have considerably grown in value over the last few years, and especially in the last few months. Mike Berkens recently reported about the increase in wholesale value of LLL .com domain names. Although EHF.com wouldn’t likely be considered a “Chinese premium” because of the vowel, the domain name certainly has considerable value due to the number of companies, people and websites that have the EHF acronym or initials (including the European Handball Federation). In fact, Estibot shows that EHF.com has a value of $168,000.
I will keep my eyes on this UDRP and follow up on this report once the decision has been published.
Update: The UDRP was won by the complainant in a decision that was just published.
Thanks for sharing that
Generic names, acronyms, … – it does not matter.
The domain owner is stupid to park his domain name. The ad revenue is so low that it makes no sense to risk UDRP for a couple of dollars. I expect the domain name to be granted to the complainant. I don’t like it, but it is what it is.
NEVER park your valuable domain names. Period.
This is bullshit Reverse Domain Name Hijacking at its finest.
So the European Handball Federation waited since 1999 and now they want to steal it legally? What a bunch of gangsters. I just don’t agree with that.
This bullshit has to stop.
The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) helps shape the policies that are important to domain owners and investors. I’d imagine this UDRP has no leg to stand on since its an acronym with tons of meaning. Weird how it took the Europeanfederation to file the claim??
Joe, did you visit the site? Yes, it is an acronym, but ads on site are related to the complainant business. That is the ONLY problem here. Being greedy for ads revenue is wrong choice in domaining.
Update: The UDRP was won by the complainant: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2016-0057