A recent study of corporate domain purchasing determined, based upon the empirical data collected, that across the board the days of massive defensive registrations are over, or at the very least in a steep decline.
To many of us in this industry, especially in the ORM field, this is not really news, but validation of what we already know; companies are focusing on making the best use of the intellectual property they already own, especially in a down economy.
The change in strategy has become one of defensively changing search engine results not defensive registrations; basically, trading a shotgun for a scalpel.
Does that mean that everything short of a .com should be forgotten? That would be un-advisable.
What really is being said by “reading the tea leaves” is that many companies believe that now is the time to act smarter, and explore whatever that strategy entails from their perspective. This is the time to subtly protect the client from themselves.
Most are turning away from turning corporate budgets over to a service provider and taking whatever advice it gives on blind faith in favor of Corporate legal taking a more active role than ever before.
We all have to take a careful look at what we are doing in this industry, and try whenever possible to make sure that money spent shows a more tangible return to our clients.
Consider the recent registrations of the following domains:
ANT-MAN-THEMOVIE.COM.
Rumor has it that Paramount ( via Disney) is going to do an “Ant Man” movieand yesterday ANT-MAN-THEMOVIE.COM was acquired under a masked registration. ANTMANTHEMOVIE.COM however was publicly registered in 2005.
At the time of this writing, the .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us and .mobi were still available for both domains. ANTMAN-THEMOVIE is available across all the extensions. It doesn’t appear that Paramount is very concerned with regard to Antman the movie, as both owned sites are not functioning right now.
Disney has registered these names in the last few days:
ATRUESTORY-MOVIE.COM
ATRUESTORY-THEMOVIE.COM
CARANCHOFILM.COM
CLASSYLADYMOVIE.COM
EATSLEEPPOOPMOVIE.COM
ESCAPEARTIST-MOVIE.COM
GENNERIS.COM
GENNERISMOVIE.COM
GOODLOOKING-THEMOVIE.COM
GREATLENGTHSMOVIE.COM
HOMEMOVIES-THEMOVIE.COM
INVESTIGATORMATER.COM
ISAWYOU-THEMOVIE.COM
LUNARMATER.COM
MATERPI.COM
MEHARMONYMOVIE.COM
MOONMATER.COM
NONSTOP-MOVIE.COM
RA-MOVIE.COM
RIGHTSTUFFMATER.COM
ROBOPOCALYPSE-MOVIE.COM
TAKINGTHECROWN.COM
TAKINGTHECROWNMOVIE.COM
TRIPLECROWNMOVIE.COM
WARHORSE-MOVIE.COM
WHENTHETRUMPETSSOUND.COM
WIFEVSNINJAMOVIE.COM
and my personal favorite:
DENVERINTERNATIONALAIRPORTMOVIE.COM.
Take note that ALL the above domains are dot -coms, and that is all that has been registered; .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us and .mobi are still available.
Does this mean that you can squat Disney names?
Disney has some of the finest Trademark Attorneys anywhere.
Despite the industry wide pulling back of domain registration, domain name registrations themselves actually increased in 2009 by about 7% over 2008. Note that the .com and .net extensions however accounted for most all of those increases.
In what appears to be a related move, on July 1, 2010, VeriSign® who is the registry for .COM and .NET, will increase its prices; .COM will go up 7%, and .NET by 10%.
It seems that the days of cheap squatting are mostly behind us, and domain tasting is not as widespread.
However what is still around is keyword infringement, typo-squatting and plenty of ways to use Intellectual property in bad faith.
Going forward, online property monitoring is poised to be more important than ever, and experience in enforcement in these matters will be key.
If you need a scalpel or effective online reputation management, Metamend has industry expertise to professionally manage your online reputation.
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