A UDRP was filed at the National Arbitration Forum against the valuable 3 letter VMI.com domain name. This is case #1790831, and the commencement date is June 15, 2018.
VMI.com does not resolve to an active website for me. When I visited, I saw a default registrar landing page that says, “This domain is parked free of charge with NameSilo.com.” There is no advertising on the landing page. The domain name is registered to an entity in Denmark (disclosure: I have done business with the registrant).
Based on the Whois history tool at DomainTools, it looks like the domain name was acquired earlier this year. I searched my email history to see if I could see it mentioned by any brokers, and I see that Sedo had it listed for sale this past February without a price. NameBio does not have a sales history for the domain name, so it was likely a private sale. As a LLL.com domain name, VMI.com holds substantial value.
Because the NAF does not report the name of the complainant until a decision is rendered, it is unclear who filed the UDRP.
My only familiarity with the VMI term is the Virginia Military Institute, which is referred to as VMI. In fact, VMI uses the VMI.edu domain name for its website. I did a Google search for VMI, and almost all of the top results I see are for the college or related to the school. Some of the other search results I see are for:
- Vantage Mobility International
- Voltage Multipliers, Inc.
- VMI, Inc.
- Veterinary Management Institute
- Virtual Media Integration
Because the domain name has no advertising nor does it look to be listed for sale right now, I do not see how the complainant will be able to prove the domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith by the current registrant.
Update: The complainant in this UDRP filing is Vantage Mobility International, LLC. The complaint was denied, although a finding of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) was not made. Attorney Zak Muscovitch successfully defended the domain name.
Here we go again… This almost weekly occurence of a UDRP against a 3L dot com is quite an eye-opener as to how vunerable owners of some valuable short domains are. Most of these UDRPs end up not being allowed, but the owner still has to defend their name. This UDRP would again seem to be a fruitless exercise but then a decision like the recent ADO.com, would give every wanna-be name complainant, cause for hope.