"iPhone" popular porn name, Apple's fed up

A new complaint from Apple has porn cybersquatters in its sights.

In a filing with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which was picked up by Domain Name Wire, the iDevice and Mac maker takes aim at seven domain names that use Apple's trademarked term "iPhone."

The seven sites lead to Web sites that sell pornography, instead of being related to Apple or Apple products.

Those names include (and duh, none of these are safe for work):
iphonecamforce.com
iphonecam4s.com
iphoneporn4s.com
iphonesex4s.com
iphonexxxforce.com
iphone4s.com
porn4iphones.com

As Domain Name Wire notes, whoever owns the domains is protected using a Whois privacy service, which is likely part of why Apple's gone through the WIPO versus contacting the owners.

The WIPO was created, in part, to curtain "cybersquatting," which is the practice of buying up domains with name similarity to companies, products and services owned by others. The organization, which is an agency within the United Nations, was created in 1967 as part of a larger program to curtail intellectual property theft and misuse.

Apple fought a legal battle with Cisco for the use of the iPhone name, with the two companies reaching a settlement in February 2007. In the original spat, Cisco said that Apple had attempted to get the rights to the iPhone name, with Cisco refusing to give it up. Cisco originally grabbed the name as part of its acquisition of Redwood City, Calif.-based Infogear in 2000, which had registered for the mark in 1996.

Apple recently bought up a number of domains immediately following its announcements at its annual developer conference. The company snatched up at least 50 domains related to iTunes Match, Launchpad, Photo Stream, and other features of iCloud and Mac OS X Lion, which were two focuses from the event.

(via AppleInsider)