SCOTUS on the Booking.com case
Booking.com and its registered trademark made waves in June 2020, when it received the green light for registration from the US Supreme Court.
The mark was issued a registration certificate from the USPTO about six months later, in January 2021.
Since then, dozens of generic domain names have been applied to be registered as trademarks, inclusive of the TLD, attempting to capitalize on new guidelines to the USPTO examiners.
It comes as no surprise that Booking.com is therefore very protective of its mark.
During the past week, Booking.com B.V. is listed as the Complainant in two UDRP cases involving four domains in total:
- supportbooking.com
- extranets-booking.com
- accountingbooking.com
- httpsbooking.com
While the last one is a classic case of typosquatting, the first three domains appear to be referencing the act of booking in different industries.
Should domain owners of “booking domains” worry?
We’ll have to wait and see. These two UDRP filings will help determine the direction that Booking.com plans to take with other domain names that contain the “booking” part.
I suspect the first three domains were used in phishing attacks or payment scams. At least one of them has been suspended by the registrar.
Andrew – There’s no doubt they track new domain registrations that contain/end in “booking.com” as in the case of the first 3 domains, all registered in the 2nd half of 2021, after the Booking.com mark was registered.
The “httpsbooking” case is more straightforward and it was registered in 2015. I believe domain investors need to be cautious when registering/acquiring new domains that end/contain “booking.com”.