Domino’s pizza has filed a UDRP to gain control of the new gTLD domain name Dominos .Pizza.
For me its another huge brand failure to protect a brand, on a bang on new gTLD domain.
Last week we saw what happened when Bloomberg allowed a third party to register Bloomberg.Market by failing to register the domain name in Sunrise which led to a huge swing in the price of Twitter when a story on that faked Bloomberg site caused shares to rise as much as 8%.
As we have chatted about before while I can understand that a trademark holder doesn’t want or need to register every domain extension out there, they do have a responsibility I believe to purchase those right in the wheelhouse to protect not only themselves but consumers, internet users, customers and as we saw last week sometimes stock investors and traders.
Domino’s does need a .lawyer or .attorney domain nor a .top or .flowers or hundreds of other but Dominos.pizza?
Really guys?
Lets not forget that Dior which is in the fashion business selling clothing, purses, shoes and the rest passed on registering Dior.Clothing only to file a UDRP to get the domain that they could have registered in Sunrise.
Another clothing designer Perry Ellis filed a UDRP today on PerryEllis.NYC
Duh
Last week Wynn one of the largest gambling companies in the world and with several properties in Las Vegas filed a UDRP to gain control of the domain name Wynn.Vegas.
Really?
No one at Wynn thought they needed to register that domain in the .domain name Wynn.Vegas in Sunrise?
Did they really think no one would step up and spend $20 or so to register Wynn.Vegas?
Well someone in Bangkok did and they are the proud owner.
Last week Porsche filed a URS (Uniform Rapid Suspension) on the domain Porsche.Design which isn’t just a name its a brand the company uses to sell products like watches shoes and other items which you can find at porsche-design.us, .porsche-design.com, porschedesign.com. Since they filed a URS instead of a UDRP if they will all they do is get the domain name suspended for the life of the registration and then it drops and becomes available again to be registered.
No Porsche didn’t need to register Porsche.plumbing or Porsche.lawyer or hundred of other extensions either but they sure better register Porsche.car, .cars .auto and .autos and the Geo’s where they sell cars.
While no one likes a cybersquatter, brands have a role to play in the cybersquatting ecosystem,.
Brands have the first right to register their domain names in every new gTLD extension.
Brands better get a lot smarter about it, sooner than later.
