JDM.com Subject of UDRP (Updated)

A UDRP has been filed against the JDM.com domain name at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The UDRP filing is case #D2017-1182.

JDM.com has a creation date of April 1995, making this domain name 22 years old. The domain name is earning advertising revenue via its Uniregistry parked page. As far as I am concerned (and as many UDRP panels have ruled), this is a legitimate business practice. Based on a DomainTools Whois History search (and article written by Jamie Zoch), it looks like the domain name may have recently changed registrants.

As a three letter .com domain name, JDM.com holds significant value. According to Estibot, the value of JDM.com is listed as $118,000, and I would not be surprised to see a domain name like this sell for somewhere in that ballpark or higher. I do to see any public sales information about JDM.com in NameBio.

The complainant in this UDRP proceeding is listed as J.D.M. Sofware B.V. (I think this is a WIPO typo and the correct company name is J.D.M. Software B.V.). A Google search for that entity name shows a company that operates on the JDM.NL ccTLD domain name. I believe this is the company that filed the UDRP. Assuming this is correct, I can see why the company would want to upgrade to the .com domain name.

There have been a few other UDRP proceedings involving valuable three letter .com domain names during the past several months. Going on memory, I think the respondents won all cases, with the exception of a case involving theft. Cases I have written about in the recent past include CQC.com, ATC.com, and SOG.com.

In my opinion, most three letter .com domain names are acquired by investors because of their versatility. For most LLL.com domain names, there are many potential prospective buyers, and there are many ways to monetize these domain names. In the case of the JDM initials, there are likely thousands of people whose initials are “JDM,” and I can see quite a few companies that use the JDM acronym. In fact, when I did a Google search of “JDM,” the first result is Urban Dictionary defining the “JDM” term as “Japanese Domestic Market.”

My guess is that the panel will rule that the domain name was not acquired in bad faith, and I will not be surprised if the panel rules it is a case of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking. Of course, I am not privy to any private details beyond what I can see, so I will be following along with the UDRP as it progresses.

Update: UDRP was denied. and despite not being asked to consider Reverse Domain Name Hijacking, the panel ruled that this was, in fact, a case of RDNH. Attorney John Berryhill defended the domain owner.