Apple Finally Trying to Acquire 'iPods.com' Domain Name

TechCrunch notes that Apple has finally gotten around to trying to acquire the ipods.com domain name, fully nine years after the domain was registered by another entity. The move comes in the form of a complaint filed under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy yesterday.

It apparently took the Cupertino company a little over 9 full years to decide that, instead, it should be the rightful owner of the domain name, which until earlier this morning took people to some shady mp3 download site (though it no longer resolves, it seems).

Yesterday, Apple lodged a complaint, positing that the domain name should be transfered over to them. Apple of course owns the ‘iPod’ trademark, so my guess it the dispute will be resolved rather rapidly. The company currently owns iPod.com, iPhone.com, iTunes.com, iMac.com, iWork.com and many other related domain names.

It is not unusual for Apple to file complaints seeking to have domain names closely related to its products transferred to its possession, and the company has in fact had a number of domains including macosxserver.com and macosxlion.com transferred to its possession over the last few months, either by settlement with the prior owner or by decree of the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

What is unusual, however, is the amount of time Apple waited before attempting to gain control of ipods.com. And not all domain transfers require such complaints to be filed, indicating that the company has been unable to reach an agreement with the domain's owner and is thus seeking help from regulatory and standards bodies at this time.