A UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization involving the valuable 4 letter GLOO.com domain name. The UDRP filing is listed on the WIPO website as case is WIPO Case D2017-0606.
GLOO.com (or perhaps simply Gloo.com because it is considered a pronounceable 4 letter domain name) was created in 1998. The domain name’s Whois record had privacy on it until very recently, and perhaps the privacy was removed because of the UDRP. With the privacy removed, I can see the domain name is registered to an entity in Great Britain. Using DomainTools’ handy Whois History Tool, I can see historical Whois records dating back to 2005. In the earliest record in 2005, it appears that the same entity owned the domain name. It is very possible the registrant owned it longer and perhaps even back in 1998 when the domain name was created. We’ll have to wait and see the decision to learn more about the ownership.
When I visited Gloo.com, I saw a notice that the owner put the domain name up for sale recently. Here’s an excerpt from the Gloo.com home page:
“The original registrant of the much sort after gloo.com domain name, registered in good faith in 1998, wishes to announce the future sale of the domain name. This sale is likely to take place via online auction in or around February/March 2017. As there is a fair amount of competitive interest in the name, it has been deemed this would be the best method of sale.”
Estibot indicates Gloo.com is worth $33,000.
The complainant in this UDRP is listed as “Entertainment Technology Investments, Inc. d/b/a Gloo, LLC.” A Google search indicates to me that the complainant is (or is associated with) the company that uses the Gloo.us ccTLD for its website. A Whois search for Gloo.us shows a creation date of May 27, 2010. The LinkedIn profile for this company also says it was founded in 2010.
Among other things, the complainant in the UDRP will need to prove that the domain name “has been registered and is being used in bad faith.” Assuming I am correct about the company that filed the UDRP, I don’t know how the complainant will be able to prove that the domain name was registered in bad faith since it appears that the domain name was initially registered years prior to the date Gloo was founded (according to LinkedIn and Whois record). Additionally, I don’t think there is anything wrong with selling a 4 letter domain name that has considerable intrinsic value. This will be a UDRP I will be following.
Update: According to UDRPSearch.com, the complaint was denied. Decision has not yet been published.
Complaint denied.