In a recent turn of events, BMW AG has once again decided that they are going to litigate for the improper use of trademarks they have the rights to.

Prior to 2008, BMW aggressively made sure that no entity infringed on the use of any trademarks, copyrights, patents and the like. When the economy took a turn for the worse BMW seemingly turned a blind eye towards the illegal use of the aforementioned items to stave off extraneous legal costs and keep the bottom line neat and tidy.

That has all begun to change as BMW is back making (significant) profits and they are out to protect what is rightfully theirs. In this case the domain name BMWrewards.com.

Clearly, unless officially licensed, those three letters in a row (BMW if you hadn ‘t figured it out) are the property of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, as is the Roundel and any other such markings (hence the reason you don ‘t see them here as that would be a HUGE check to write!)

BMW is suing for the domain name, legal fees and $100k. BMW has already in 2011 filed for more (8) Uniform Domain-name dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) claims in 2011 than the last three years combined.

This reminds us of how BMW had been, especially when MINI re-launched. You couldn ‘t whisper the name MINI without hearing from the legal department.

What this means is that you may see much more of this over the coming months and some domain names may be called into question, parts suppliers, tuners and other businesses profiting from the use of “BMW “.

Hat tip to Andrew over at DNW.com for providing us the info.