A business needs to protect its brand and its name. Safeguarding these assets is vital to the ongoing success of any business. A company’s name arguably might be its most valuable asset. Part of protecting a brand is securing its online image and presence.
How likely are you to buy a pair of sneakers from my (fictional) small shoe company over a pair made by Adidas? The pair I manufacture might be better quality, might be cheaper, and might look nicer but odds are you will be buying the globally well-known Adidas product. Why? You are comfortable with Adidas. You trust Adidas. You know you are going to get great value from a pair of sneakers from this company. You feel validation in your choice when you see others wearing Adidas sneakers. When you see the Adidas brand, you see these aspects of the company instantly in the name. My sneaker company is an unknown.
Just as you can equate these positive feelings about a brand, you can also equate negative feelings about the company if its image becomes tarnished in some way. A company must maintain and protect its name and brand. A successful company cannot let their image become associated with anything that might replace positive customer emotions with negative emotions.
The most well-known cases of brand protection and domain names involve celebrities and big companies. The pop singers Madonna and Jennifer Lopez have both gone to court to gain control of domain names that used their name for web sites that displayed sexually explicit pictures of the celebrities. In 1999, Madonna sued the owner of adult content web site that had the registration for madonna.com. She won her challenge through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and gained control of the domain name. Jennifer Lopez also used a legal challenge through the WIPO to have two domains transferred to her that used her name for sexually explicit web sites.
In 2004, Mike Rowe, a teenaged web designer went toe-to-toe with Microsoft over his domain registration and web site for mikerowesoft.com. The tech giant threatened legal action after the young Rowe offered to sell the name to them for $10,000. Mr. Rowe took his case to the media and after a lot of negative publicity for the company, Microsoft settled with the teenager for an undisclosed amount.
If all this information about domain names and web sites seems complicated, do not worry, we can help. Email us at hello@oviedonetworks.com to ask about our services to get your business online quickly and successfully.
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