Just one month ago, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) fought for custody over the iPad3.com domain, now it appears that the company’s lawyers have officially taken over the domain name.
On July 4th, Fusible reported that the name on the Whois name record has changed. It’s now under Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton(KTS). This multi-national law firm worked for Apple in the past including the case against Psystar for selling computers that were running unauthorized Mac OS X.
The domain registration doesn’t show Apple’s name as the owner of the domain name but that could change soon. Last month, the technology giant filed a case to World Intellectual Property Organization in order to regain control of the domain name iPad3.com which at the time was being used by Global Access. Naturally, Apple won the case.
This wasn’t the first time Apple filed a lawsuit over domain names. Last May, Apple took over the domain of iPhone5.com. So far, they haven’t done anything with the domain. What the world’s most valuable company plans to do with iPad3.com is not yet known, but given their history, they will probably do nothing with it. It appears that this company is fighting to take over domains that use their product or brand as an effort to protect their intellectual property.
Apple is a smart company and they understand the importance of protecting their brand, especially if some companies plan to use their name for negative purposes like scams or malware. When you’re a company that’s as big as Apple, you really can never take too many safety precautions regarding brand protection. This probably won’t be the last time Apple has to take intellectual property rights over domain names into court, especially if the company continues to grow. It’s speculated that Apple will release iPhone 5 later on this year and their rumored television set will debut in a year or two.
