A Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) was filed today on the domain name Branson.Guru
This is the first URS that has been filed which in my opinion should not be granted.
The complainant is not listed but based on recent activity I’m going to assume its Richard Branson CEO of Virgin.
The problem is that there is also a city by the name of Branson, which is in Missouri and a pretty large tourist attraction.
The official site for the city is CityofBranson.org which has grown to be a large tourist destination with plenty of theaters, shows and hotels.
The domain is not parked.
The domain is still at a Godaddy placeholder so the intent of the owner of the domain cannot be determined at this point, as being a site having anything to do with Sir Richard or the town.
All previously filed URS seemed to be slam dunk cases involving famous trademarks which is what the URS is suppose to be for, but in this case I believe the URS should be rejected.
If the URS is granted and the domain is suspended, I think its going to be a big blow for the new gTLD’s.
It could be a game changer and force registrants to get up a site in days on each new gTLD to protect the domain.
