A UDRP dispute on Monday decided that the New Pig Corporation cannot take the generic domain name pig.com. The New Pig Corporation is in ownership of a Pig trademark which they had registered in 1987 for industrial absorbents, and the company had previously tried to buy pig.com at $21,000.

However Domain Name investor Adam Dicker bought the domain for $50,000. New Pig then allegedly made a bid of $2.74 per click, resulting in them showing up in the top position on pig.com. New Pig consequently used this in the UDRP complaint to fuel their argument that the domain was trading on its mark.

This all sheds some light on the money involved in parked pay-per-click search Domains like the one currently at pig.com. John Berryhill, one of relatively few attorneys who specialise in UDRP disputes, seems to have got the better of New Pig in this case:

New Pig claim to spend on average $4M per year promoting it’s products. However, they did not specify what the promotions were, nor did they provide any documentation to prove their assertion.

Also the swine and pork industries dwarf the Complainant’s sale of its specialized product Industrial Absorbents, and it is reasonable to assume that the Panel members themselves were aware of the word "pig" prior to this dispute and that like the Respondent, had never heard of New Pig or its products.

New Pig now admit that they are themselves responsible for the appearance of their own advertisement on the Respondent’s webpage.