You may remember something of a kerfuffle about Methodics, which uses the methodics-da.com domain, finding that a page at methodics.com that said that Methodics was out of business, pointing them to IC Manage instead.

While it was all suspicion at the time, it turns out that Methodics did a Uniform Domain Name Resolution complaint. This process is used when someone has a domain that infringes someone else’s trademark for less than honorable purposes.  According to the policy, there are three things that must be demonstrated:

“(i) your domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights; and

 (ii) you have no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and

 (iii) your domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.”

Presumably, saying that the company is out of business when, in fact, it isn’t, might qualify under the third item, but then again, I shouldn’t presuppose that: the matter is still being adjudicated.

However, in the process, the owner of the domain was revealed: Shiv Sikand, VP of Engineering at IC Manage. I did my own “whois” and confirmed the same. Frankly, I should have thought to do that before; I don’t know if that’s only recently been visible. UPDATE: Turns out, it was originally registered anonymously through a third-party proxy, so an earlier “whois” wouldn’t have worked. The investigation revealed the owner.

I checked with IC Manage, and got the following comment from Shiv Sikand:

“I acquired the Methodics.com domain name in mid-June 2011 for a nominal sum at a domain name auction. There are at least two companies using the name Methodics. I have since offered it to Methodics LLC, which currently uses methodics-da.com, for the same price I paid for it.”

I’ve checked with Methodics to see if they are going to bite; no response on that yet. UPDATE: They “… do plan to recover the domain from Sikand however there are some legal issues that do need to be addressed as part of that process.”

So there it is, the obvious is now confirmed. I can’t help but qualify this as a cheap trick. I suppose someone might think it’s clever in a “whatever it takes to win” mode, but, were it successful, it certainly wouldn’t be a demonstration of better technology.