What domain not to register #2 and #3

I was going thought the Namejet list of pending delete domains and my eye caught this “hot” domain name. The domain cocacola.biz has a bidder with a $69 bid and drops in a couple of days.

The Coca-Cola Company owns several domain names including:
cocacola.com
cocacola.net
cocacola.org
cocacola.info
cocacola.us
cocacola.me (won in WIPO)
coca-colacompany.com
cocacolacompany.com
coca-cola.com (official website)
thecocacolacompany.com
thecoca-colacompany.com (official company website)

The Coca-Cola Company has filed 61 UDRP complaints with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the National Arbitration Forum (NAF).  The Coca-Cola Company has only lost one Complaint. The one for sprite.nu. 3 of the cases are still active. Their first UDRP Complaint was in 2000. So it is apparent that they are vigilant and actively enforcing their trademark rights. The Coca-Cola Company has 490 live trademarks registered at the USPTO.

The domain name was owned by someone from Korea since 2002 and only last year ownership was changed to someone from the US. This is it’s first drop as it carries a 2002 registration date.

Before I could recover I saw another one: billgates.info with a $73 bid. Billgates.info is a LR2 domain registered since 2002 to a person in Sri Lanka.

Surprisingly, William Henry “Bill” Gates III, co-founder, former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft, owns NON of these domain names:
billgates.com
billgates.net
billgates.org
billgates.biz
billgates.us
bill-gates.com
bill-gates.info
bill-gates.us
williamgates.com
williamgates.net
williamgates.org
williamgates.info
williamgates.biz

Bill Gates operates his official website at thegatesnotes.com: The Official Site of Bill Gates – The Gates Notes. He also operates his and his wifes foundation at gatesfoundation.org: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates has no history of UDRP complaints but Microsoft sure does. He only owns a registered trademark for “BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION” at USPTO.

Again, even from a cybersquatter’s point of view registering these domains doesn’t make any sense. Why pay $69 or $73 for these domains? These will hardly get any type-in traffic. And why register domain names that nobody will ever want to buy?

So who will register these domain name and why? In What domain not to register #1 the domain was actually caught by the trademark owner. This also might be the case for cocacola.biz but I don’t think Bill Gates will register the domain billgates.info. We will know in a couple of days.