Microsoft has been making a big push with its HoloLens and with HoloStudio and HoloTour and now…. HoloPet!

Microsoft has filed a trademark for the matching term HoloPet on May 23, 2015.

Interesting to note, I remembered the “name” when I had seen the trademark today because yesterday I had noticed the domain name HoloPet.com is currently an expired domain name auction. You can view the HoloPet.com domain auction by clicking that link. The current bid price is $12 with 1 bid at the time of this posting and the auction ends in 3 days on May 31, 2015.

The domain name HoloPet.com is 12 years old, having a creation date of April 27, 2003.

Microsoft acquired the domain name HoloLens.com at Sedo at bargain price of $6,750 as first reported by DomainGang.com. I have been in contact with the HoloStudio.com and HoloTour.com domain owners and both have had interest in both of those domains. I know for a fact that Microsoft has contacted the HoloTour.com domain owner, who also owns HoloTours.com.

Is it risky to buy HoloPet.com in the expired domain auction? There is a recently filed trademark on the term but I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not providing legal advise. Yes the domain name was created 12 years ago, well before the trademark filing but if you win the expired domain auction, does that virtually erase that “creation date” due to the change of ownership? That would be a key question to ask a lawyer.

The fact is, Microsoft has filed the HoloPet trademark and the exact match domain name HoloPet.com is currently an expired domain auction!

Update: The expired domain auction for HoloPet.com ended for $1,913 USD. With the auction ending on 5/31/2015, it takes about 7 days after auction for the domain to transfer ownership to the highest bidder, if the past owner does not renew.

Now the burning question remains… did the domain sell or was it renewed by the past owner after the auction ended. A wise move of the buyer if it did sell… don’t change whois, and make it at least appear the domain never changed ownership… but it will be hard to clear escrow that way to verify ownership. June 8th 2015 should reveal if John Mason renewed the domain or if it was sold.