Game Lounge acquired Betting.com in a domain rebranding deal worth seven figures, or more.
The acquisition of Betting.com is interesting as it coincides with the decision about Booking.com and its matching trademark BOOKING.COM.
In 2000, Christopher Latter, original registrant of Betting.com, applied for a trademark at the USPTO for Betting.com, but his application was abandoned.
The application was for the “provision of sporting event and related information accessed using a computer network,” and a first date of use being 11/7/1994, the registration date of Betting.com.
Why was the application for BETTING.COM denied at the USPTO?
Here’s the reason given:
“Abandoned because the applicant failed to respond or filed a late response to an Office action. “
The trademark application was abandoned in June 2001, indicating that correspondence on the application sought certain requirements. As there is no recording of that communication we can only speculate whether the refusal was related to the inclusion of “.COM” after the keyword in the trademark application.
Betting.com already existed as an active web site in the 1990s, and most definitely at the time of the trademark application.
The BOOKING.COM case at the US Supreme Court emphasizes the possibility of registering generic keywords with the addition of a domain TLD as trademarks. This might lead to the eventual registration of BETTING.COM as a trademark by its new owners, Game Lounge.
