Following the recent ruling by the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbritation (KLRCA) to award the ‘propertyguru.com.my’ domain name to AllProperty Media Pte Ltd, iProperty.com Malaysia has decided to pursue the matter further by filing a lawsuit with the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

As such, no further action can be taken in respect to the KLRCA domain name dispute pending the resolution of the lawsuit.

The ruling passed on 20 July 2011, saw the KLRCA panel directing iProperty.com Malaysia to transfer the domain name “propertyguru.com.my’ to AllProperty Media Pte Ltd by August 4th 2011.

The transfer was to be effected on August 4th 2011.

iProperty.com Malaysia has since filed the lawsuit in the Kuala Lumpur High Court which has placed the intended transfer on hold.

“With full respect for KLCRA and the decision made by its panelists, iProperty.com Malaysia, together with our lawyers have chosen to take this matter to the High Court as we believe that we acquired the domain name through legitimate means through our acquisition of Think Media Sdn Bhd,” said Shaun Di Gregorio, CEO of iProperty Group.

“We believe we have not acted in bad faith as quoted by Property Guru as we had intended to use the domain name for a specific purpose. The website launched under ‘propertyguru.com.my’ in October 2010 is a website to test new technology and is clearly a site that delivers a totally different user experience,” said Di Gregorio.

The URL was originally registered and owned by Think Media Sdn Bhd in 2009.

In 2010, AllProperty Media Pte Ltd and iProperty.com Malaysia had bid for the acquisition of Think Media Sdn Bhd, which iProperty.com Malaysia eventually acquired, together with the rights to the domain name.

“To clarify, AllProperty Media Pte Ltd was fully aware of Think Media Sdn Bhd’s ownership of the domain name when it was bidding for the company. This directly contradicts their statement claiming that iProperty had registered the ‘propertyguru.com.my’ domain in bad faith,” said Di Gregorio.

“I am confident we will be able to resolve this matter in the Kuala Lumpur High Court as we continue to serve our customers and consumers with the best online property search experience in the country,” he adds.