Facebook lawyers recently succeeded in a domain dispute with an outfit from the Isle of Mann named YOLAPT - a company which filled the url face-book.com with advertisements for "Russian brides" and "Older Women." YOLAPT registered the domain several months after Mark Zuckerberg initially launched thefacebook.com exclusively for Harvard students. Considering the close proximity of the registration dates, it is unlikely YOLAPT obtained the url with malicious intentions. In their complaint to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), however, Facebook claims the Manx site is using their brand to profit from poor quality material.
Brigitte Joppich, a panelist for WIPO, decided in favor of Facebook last week despite suggesting the company's case was "towards the weaker end of the spectrum." Joppich continued that YOLAPT "is in all likelihood trying to divert traffic intended for the complainant's website to its own for the purpose of earning click-through-revenues."
Addressing this small matter during a period of rapid growth is an interesting move for Facebook. Possibly a statement to domain squatters or maybe a signal of Facebook preparing for a big move.