It looks like someone has filed a UDRP against GameRoom.com, a domain name that is owned by Facebook. The UDRP was filed at the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), and it is case #1923613. I spotted the UDRP filing on UDRPSearch.com this afternoon, and I did a search of the NAF website to confirm that this is the domain name listed in the UDRP filing.
GameRoom.com currently forwards to a download page within Facebook’s website where visitors can download a service called Facebook Gameroom. According to historical Whois records at DomainTools, Facebook has been the registrant of GameRoom.com since approximately October of 2016. In fact, when Facebook acquired Gameroom.com, Jamie Zoch wrote an article about the acquisition on DotWeekly.
Unfortunately, the NAF does not reveal the identity of the complainant before a decision is reached, so it is unclear who filed the UDRP against GameRoom.com. When I searched Google for Gameroom today, the top results were for Facebook’s Gameroom service.
In my opinion, notwithstanding the fact that Facebook owns and uses GameRoom.com, it seems like Gameroom.com is a descriptive domain name, and I don’t see how a complainant could win. The fact that Facebook owns the domain name and is using it for its Gameroom service makes it even less likely for this domain name to be lost via UDRP. I am looking forward to reading the decision to understand why this UDRP was filed.
Update: The UDRP was denied, but the panel did not find that this was a case of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking.
Nice find Eliot..
Lots of exact or other filings that incorporate GAMEROOM on the USPTO. None look to be from “FacePlant”.
Giving the negative publicity of FB and Tweaker, including antitrust, and likely a significant – if not half their subscribers leaving in the next few years due to politics – why not file a claim on the generic / intuitive term. Point being is once FB goes live with whatever its makes into Gameroom.com – it will likely take on secondary meaning after the fact – leaving other previous uses in the dust – or buried with astronomical legal fees
So hit FB now while you can ?
Bri
Maybe this is Spase trying his luck with some other domains?
If you look at Wayback machine in 1999, it used to redirect to a porn site before it was built as a legitimate game site!