Apple grappling for iPhone 5 URL

Every morsel of iPhone 5 information is precious, especially when Apple becomes directly involved.

The company filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the URL for iphone5.com, which is currently held by a group that’s using it as a message board for discussions about the new iPhone.

Before the iPhone 4S reveal last year, it was generally expected that Apple would in fact announce the iPhone 5.

Instead, the new iPhone 4S was a minimal refinement of the iPhone 4, bringing few improvements besides the addition of Siri, suggesting that the next phone will be a more significant upgrade.

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The name of Apple’s new iPhone is as secret as every other scrap of information regarding the device, especially since the third iPad release turned out to be called simply the New iPad instead of the expected iPad 3.

But Wedbush analyst Scott Sutherland says that Apple would be wise to continue naming the iPhone family of devices sequentially.

I think the new iPad has created some confusion with the name, Sutherland told TechRadar in an email, so Apple may be smart to go to iPhone 5 especially after doing the 4S.

Apples WIPO filing contains no clear indications that the phone will actually be called iPhone 5, and its attempted acquisition of the domain could simply be intended to prevent confusion.

Previous WIPO complaints enabled Apple to take control of similar web addresses, such as iphone4s.com and even the more specific iphonesex4s.com. So if these past cases are any indication then Apple is likely to come out on top of iphone5.com, as well.

The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center handles thousands of domain name disputes every year, and there are laws against cybersquatting in many countries, including the US.

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