Facebook files for arbitration to get Facebook.me domain name.
Facebook has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization to get the domain name Facebook.me. The domain name is currently registered to a United Arab Emirates man.
.Me is technically the country code domain name for Montenegro, but has been commercialized to be a personalized “me” domain name.
This isn’t the first country code domain name the social networking behemoth has gone after. It has previously won complaints for Facebook.ir, .nl, .es, .com.au, and .ie.
Granted, Facebook doesn’t have rights to every domain that includes the term “face book”, since face books have been around for many years. In fact, Syracuse University won rights to the domain name SUfacebook.com back in 2004. But in this case the domain owner is forwarding the domain to Facebook.com, so it’s pretty clear he registered it with the social networking site in mind.
A number of other big brands have used domain name arbitration to get their .me domain names, including American Express, MapQuest, Overstock, Mozilla, and Porsche.