Nintendo loses court case to acquire WiiU.com

Well at least we now know why Nintendo's latest console release hasn't been selling well: Nintendo doesn't have a decent official URL. It tried, oh Nintendo tried, but the courts decided that it wasn't deserving of being given the site just like that. Now with its appeal denied, Nintendo will either have to leave it be, or fork out a boatload of cash to get it.

Nintendo's initial claim – and a relatively just one you might expect – was one of cyber squatting, suggesting that the individual/organisation that bought up WiiU.com, did so just to force Nintendo to buy it from them. Of course, you might assume that Nintendo would do something as simple as buying up relevant URLs, before it announced the name of its console, but apparently it didn't get all of them.

At the moment, WiiU.com simply displays sponsored adverts, many of them ironically, for Nintendo products.

That said, as Fusible points out, Sony doesn't own PlayStation4.com and Microsoft has had to file complaints for XboxOne.com and Xbox1.com itself. Nintendo also had to go through this same deal last generation with Wii.com, where it purportedly had to pay out an undisclosed sum for the domain. 

The question now remains, whether Microsoft will be successful in its attempts to regain the domains linked – at least by name – with its next-gen console. Judging by Nintendo's outcome, it may not be the one the software giant hopes for. 

KitGuru Says: This type of thing happens with all sorts of companies. At the turn of the century, some guy registered 21stcenturyfox.com, thinking the studio would change its name. It didn't, but it looks like now it might, so maybe that guy will get a payday someday soon after all. 

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