Heinz Files UDRP On KraftHeinz.com, Registered Same Day Merger Was Announced

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Just two month after announcing its merger with Kraft Foods (NASDAQ: KRFT) ,  H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE:HNZ)  has filed a UDRP to gain control of the domain name KraftHeinz.com

The domain name was registered on March 25, 2015 the same day the companies announced the merger, by someone in Korea.

On the same day someone in Korea also registered the reverse domain of HeinzKraft.com with the same registrar, so pretty likely the same person.

So far a UDRP has not been filed on that domain, however the merged company will be known as  the Kraft Heinz Company.

 

Merger will create the 3rd largest food and beverage company in North America and the 5th largest food and beverage company in the world.

The Combined company to be named The Kraft Heinz Company and to be co-headquartered in Pittsburgh and the Chicago area.

The new company will have revenues of approximately $28 billion with eight $1+ billion brands and five brands between $500 million-$1 billion.

 

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  1. Bob McGough says

    I have a few basic questions about this. Should a TM violation this egregious even require a UDRP filing? It’s not hard to foresee a logjam of such TM violation cases with all the new gTLDs. Obviously, ICANN will really need to build out their infrastructure considerably to support this. Should the Registrars bear some of this burden by refusing to issue TM’d domains? Is there / should there be a hefty penalty enforced — and whose responsibility is it to enforce this?

  2. Michael Berkens says

    Bob

    On the new G’s a TM holder can file a URS which is a much cheaper quicker remedy than a UDRP

    However for .com or .net’s the legacy extensions URS is not available

    The TM lobby wants to include the URS in those extensions so the battle is raging

  3. todd says

    There are a lot of smart people working for these companies and this merger didn’t happen over night so who dropped the ball and didn’t foresee to register this domain.

  4. Jen says

    I would be against a fast resolution regarding the taking away of domains. While this particular instance is egregious, other cases aren’t so clear cut. And who decides those cases?

    Giving too much power to an agency responsible for confiscating digital property is just too scary to contemplate. There is too much hanky panky and questionable decisions going on with the UDRP and URS as it is.

    The Kraft-Heinz group should bear some responsibility for their failure to secure the domain before announcing the merger.

  5. babetruth says

    Did they drop the ball or not want to tip their hand at the merger? You cannot just legally register someone’s trademark…well I guess that you can, but I would also file ACPA lawsuit.

  7. kora says

    Someone who registered ,Korean guy is mysterious.
    And Udrp is best dolution for global dispute. .Com domain is for global not local. Acpa is only for American’s interests.