It looks like Kanye West and Mascotte Holdings, Inc. have filed a UDRP at the World Intellectual Property Organization to try and gain control of the Yandhi.com domain name. The UDRP is WIPO case #D2018-2788.
From what I understand, Yandhi is the title of Kanye’s next album, which has apparently been delayed a couple of times. Yandhi will be a follow up to his hit album, Yeezus (West Brands LLC owns but does not use Yeezus.com). The Yandhi name was announced in a Kanye West tweet this past September:
— ye (@kanyewest) September 17, 2018
The Yandhi.com domain name was registered on September 16, 2018. Because the domain name was registered under Whois privacy, the registrant of Yandhi.com is currently unknown. When I visited Yandhi.com to see how it was being used this morning, I was forward to an image on NASA’s governmental website.
From what I can tell, this appears to be West’s first UDRP filing. Even though the domain name does not appear to be monetized, listed for sale, or used in a confusing manner, my guess is that West will prevail in the UDRP. Had the domain name been registered years prior to West’s planned usage of the Yandhi term, it would be a different story. We shall see what happens.
Updated: UDRPSearch.com shows that this UDRP was terminated, so no more details will be provided.
Well, but the domain name was registered two days before the announcement of the album name. Is that still not enough for the domain name creator to win?
It looks like one day (September 16 registration and September 17 tweet), but because of time zone differences, it may have been the same day.
I assume Kanye had been planning to use the Yandhi name before the tweet. For instance, I presume people working on the album (artists and engineers) as well as people associated with SNL knew about Yandhi before the tweet.
In any case, from my non-legal viewpoint, it sure seems like the domain name was registered because of Kanye’s planned usage of the Yandhi name and branding. We shall see though.
That makes sense. The word “Yandhi” isn’t a very common word so it’s possible that some staff members who knew the thing registered it.
The date of the tweet shows “Sep 18, 2018” to me probably because of my time offset (UTC+8). Anyway, this case is interesting and I’m looking forward to how it will be handled.
I will never understand why people or companies will announce a new product, service, whatever without first securing the domain.
Agree Todd but we are talking about a uniquely debased individual here, so I’m not that surprised he didn’t think to register the domain.
Registrars are not going to blocked anybody from registering a domain names if it is available to register. Who want to wait for days or years to make money? Not me. Business is business; that is how business operates. Buy the domain and move on!
UDRPSearch.com shows that this UDRP was terminated, so no more details will be provided.