I was reading through the new UDRP cases, and I saw that Zions Bancorporation filed a UDRP for ten new gTLD domain names. Zions Bancorporation is a holding company with several subsidiaries in the banking business. Related companies include Zions Bank, Amegy Bank of Texas, California Bank & Trust, National Bank of Arizona, Nevada State Bank, and several others.
The UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the cost of the filing was $2,000, not including legal fees. The domain names appear to be registered by the same London-based registrant, which is why the company was able to file a UDRP for all of these domain names at one time.
The domain names that are subject to this particular UDRP are:
- zionsbank.careers
- zionsbank.directory
- zionsbank.equipment
- zionsbank.estate
- zionsbank.technology
- zionsbank.today
- zionsbank.ventures
- zions.equipment
- zions.holdings
- zions.today
In addition to this UDRP, Zions Bancorporation recently filed four other UDRPs at WIPO. The company filed individual UDRP cases on the following domain names:
- zionsbankk.com
- zionsbankj.com
- zionsbankc.com
- zionsbankl.com
It’s interesting to me because it would seem that there is an endless amount of typo possibilities, and spending $1,500 on each UDRP is a considerable amount of money. I suppose it is less expensive and quicker than filing a lawsuit. It also sends a message to people who buy and monetize domain names that could be infringing on their brand name(s).
Interesting to note that these same names in the .com extension are all available except for zionsholdings.com. I guess instead of spending 90 bucks to register these now they will wait and spend a lot more later on a UDRP. Pretty Ridiculous.
ZIONSBANKCAREERS.COM
ZIONSBANKDIRECTORY.COM
ZIONSBANKEQUIPMENT.COM
ZIONSBANKESTATE.COM
ZIONSBANKTECHNOLOGY.COM
ZIONSBANKTODAY.COM
ZIONSBANKVENTURES.COM
ZIONSEQUIPMENT.COM
ZIONSTODAY.COM
The others are shorter than the .coms you list
The others are nonproven and as of right now useless gTLDs.
Although they probably don’t receive any type in traffic, I would assume there is a concern about phishing attempts or something along those lines. Better to nip it in the bud, although the amount of domain names that could be used is virtually endless.
I wonder how many UDRPs will be filed by attorneys using a ambulance chaser mentality. Watch what is registered and then contact the company to represent them in a UDRP. With all of these new gTLDs a lawyer can build a career off of this right now.
This has been many a voiced fears since day 1, especially with banking, and medical records type companies. You are correct this action could go on for years. I saw NASCAR.club was taken as well by a party in Europe, this is really asking for it.
Unproven as in it’s insane that some one would ever land on the moon 😉