Future Media Architects (FMA) is an internet development
company
A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...
founded in 2002 and focused on acquiring and developing premiere domain names and web properties. FMA is primarily known for its large portfolio of internet domain names, estimated to exceed 120,000 in 2011. FMA has faced several lawsuits related to
cybersquatting
Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting) is the practice of registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name, with a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.
The term is derived f ...
activities.
History
FMA was founded by Thunayan Khalid Al-Ghanim, known by his internet alias "elequa", in 2002. Born in 1970 in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, Al-Ghanim "comes from a respected
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
i family that has international business interests".
By mid-2003, FMA had "amassed more than 12,000 quality domains", including media.com, multimedia.com, fm.com, mp3.tv, dj.net, and oxide.com. The company purchased i.net, a major
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
-approved
internet registry, to process and manage its portfolio of domain names purchases.
By 2011, FMA held over 120,000 domain names, though Al-Ghanim said, "I haven't been an active buyer lately."
In 2016, FMA reversed a longstanding policy not to sell domain names,
and began offloading parts of its domain portfolio. Notably, it sold a number of four-letter domain names in the Chinese market. In 2017, FMA listed almost 10,000 domain names for sale on the
Uniregistry market. Between 2014 and 2018, FMA's domain name sales were estimated at $24M.
In March 2019, after "a dispute that lasted four years", Al-Ghanim was removed as an officer of FMA. The company is now under control of his sister, Shareefah Khalid Al-Ghanim. "According to court documents, Mrs. Alghanim asserted that her brother mismanaged the company, and indulged in a variety of vices impeding his judgement when making decisions about FMA. The two siblings were equal partners in the company with a 50% stake each."
Lawsuits & Controversy
FMA and Al-Ghanim have faced several lawsuits related to
cybersquatting
Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting) is the practice of registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name, with a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.
The term is derived f ...
activities, with judgements found both for and against FMA. Examples of disputed domains include kiwi.com, jackass.com, and calcar.org.
References
{{Reflist
Companies established in 2002