Facebook is trying to take away the domain facebook.nl from the Dutch owner. ‘They don’t have the right,’ says the owner, who wishes to remain unknown, ‘I’ve already registered facebook.nl earlier than they did!’ It’s now up to WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation), to make a ruling.
Mid 2008, Facebook already tried to buy the domain facebook.nl from the Dutchman. He refuses even though Facebook was offering him an amount of five figures. After this, everything became quiet, until a few days ago. Suddenly the Dutchman received a thick file from the lawyers of Facebook.
In this file the lawyers make clear they think facebook.nl is abusing the mark Facebook to make money out of advertisements. According to these lawyers, the site also referred to Stepstone.nl a while ago, an agency that apparentely pays third parties to link to website to Stepstone’s homepage.
The owner has very little faith he’ll win the case. A while ago the Spanish owner of facebook.es and the Australian owner of facebook.com.au also had to hand over their domain names to Mark Zuckerberg & co.
The Dutch domain manager however claims the Dutchman does stand a chance to win this case, because his domain already existed before Zuckerberg & co took Facebook.com into possession. ‘Facebook.nl was already registered in July 2005. Facebook.com was only bought in August 2005 for 200,000 dollars. Before that date they were working under the name Thefacebook.com. ‘ According to Facebook’s lawyers the Americans already had all the rights and trademark on Facebook in July 2005.
The Dutchman now waits impatiently for the WIPO ruling.