Here is something that confuses me a little but doesn’t totally surprise me !
Companies big and small file for trademarks on a verity of terms daily in different categories. In general, it seems that nearly every generic term is trademarked and this clearly leads to many legal fights for a vast amount of reasons and often times includes domain names.
I know that people pay close attention to newly registered trademarks (free trademark search), because this can lead into a potential domain buyer in the near future. But does it? I know from experience that it doesn’t always lead into a domain sale.
Example domain I own: AlwaysMe.com
I have owned this domain name since 2007 ( I strongly advise NOT to buy / register domain names of an existing mark. The purpose of this article is to show an already existing domain registration, and when a trademark is filed matching the term of an already existing mark)
~ Procter & Gamble filed a trademark for the exact match term “Always Me” in 2010 for “Mobile phone application for menstrual cycle tracking.”
I was never inquired upon to purchase the domain name.
BUXOM USA INC CORPORATION filed for a trademark for the exact match term “Always Me” on January 8, 2014 mainly for “Clothing”
I was contacted more recently with an offer for AlwaysMe.com via Afternic but the potential buyer wouldn’t accept a $500 higher counter offer, so no deal was made.
So two companies have filed for a trademark for a term that exact matches a domain name that I have owned since 2007, yet no domain sale has taken place. My offering price to the last contact was well in reasonable offering, so it was close to a sale!
My guess would be that 1 of the 2 trademark holders did contact me!
Other sites use the exact match term in the domains they use, so this also adds value to my exact match domain!
AlwaysMeJewelry.com
AlwaysMeBailbonds.com
AlwaysMeDesigns.com
AlwaysMeClothing.com
AlwaysMe3.com
ShopAlwaysMe.com
AlwaysMe.com.au
AlwaysForMe.com (which I get a lot of its traffic)
Those are just to mention a few and many I’m sure would benefit of owning AlwaysMe.com
So the question is, does owning a generic term as a domain and an entity registers a trademark, will this lead into a domain name sale? The chances should greatly increase but it doesn’t always lead into interest. I did have a recent contact, but I am unsure if the interested party was related to an existing site mentioned above, a new person wanting in on the term for an other use or from a trademark holder. I think it was the recent TM filer, but I’m not 100% certain.
The good news for me, I have a lot of bullets in the gun! It will just come to see who is the wisest of the bunch and buys the exact match domain before somebody else in the group does and they wont have the chance!
Most trademark name applications cost about $500-$2,000 to file with several different factors.
Your ownership of trademarked domains will potentially put you at a risk of litigation by the TM owner.
And the more “bullets” you have, the higher your risk…
Did you read the story? I have owned the domain name since 2007, 3 years BEFORE the first trademark was filed. 7 years PRIOR to the second trademark filed for the term I own. I’m not some dumb ass buying already trademarked term domains! I have made it BOLDER and CLEARER in my article that this article is not about buying / register domains for already existing or newly created trademarks!
Writing a blog post about those companies might wake them up, but I doubt it. Many companies just move along and don’t bother. Happens all the time. Even if you did register before their mark, often I think these companies don’t care or don’t know your rights…Might be easier to file a UDRP too. Sadly, stranger cases have been won.
Good to see you writing again