Apple never had the foresight to register the domain iphone5.com, and is now taking strong measures to wrest it away from its current ownership.
The company has filed a claim with the World Intellectual Property Organization to demand that because it owns the rights to the “iPhone 5” moniker, it should be given ownership of the domain.
The WIPO has the authority to make that happen, but only if it believes that the domain as it stands now is intentionally damaging the company’s reputation or could easily mislead consumers who think it is an official site for the product or brand in question.
Currently, iphone5.com plays host to an online forum, and not a very active one at that. Apple has been known to be quite a fan of the WIPO system, filing two cases last year to shut down the current owners of ipods.com and iphone4s.com.
There is some question as to whether or not the next iPhone – or any iPhone, for that matter – will be called the iPhone 5. Apple threw naming conventions out of the window with the launch of the new iPad.
Instead of calling it the iPad 3 as many had expected, it is just simply called the “new iPad,” or in even simpler jargon, the “iPad.” The rationale behind that decision remains a source of speculation and uncertainty, but the bottom line is that now, instead of just assuming the next iPhone will be called the iPhone 5, there’s reason to believe it will be something else.
Of course, people still refer to the new iPad as the iPad 3, simply because it’s the easiest way to distinguish it from the others. We’re curious to see how this unconventional naming structure will continue with Apple moving forward.
