Procter & Gamble owns a lot of “exact match” domain names but for some reason simply never registered the exact match (IMO) name of one of the companies new products. DuraTowel. DuraTowel® is in the Bounty® paper towel family but DuraTowel.com simply sits unregistered?
Being “available” to be registered is well worth the $10 to P&G but at the time of this article, they failed to do so!
P&G interestingly enough registered the trademark for “Bounty DuraTowel” in early 1999 but let the trademark lapse in 2001. Spring forward some 10 years later and P&G refiles for the TM on “Bounty DuraTowel” and gets it.
Long story short, they didn’t register the domain name “DuraTowel.com” in 1999 and didn’t again with the new TM filed in late 2011 or when the product was launched.
This is a mistake!
To me, DuraTowel is a “brand” in its own. Yes, “Bounty” is the main brand of the paper towels from P&G, but “DuraTowel” becomes the name to describe the product. Often times, this name also becomes the “search term” one will use to find the product online. Some will often simply visit the exact match name as a domain name and visit DuraTowel.com.
P&G could save some legal fees if somebody else decides to register the domain or put the domain names to work!
P&G also failed to register
BountyDuraTowel.com
BountyDuraTowels.com
DuraTowels.com
Always register/purchase the Exact Match domain name of your product! It just makes sense!
Thats odd. If they own many other domains why not register these, I wonder why as well.