airtel.com $35,000 at pool.com

[bmugford]

Go Daddy Auctions™ sellers are responsible for ensuring that offered domain names do not infringe on third-party trademarks.

Well, a disclaimer only gets you so far legally.

So users who list obvious TM issue domains for sale on GoDaddy.com are responsible, but GoDaddy.com is not responsible in any way for their listing of obvious TM issues. Got it.
In fact not only that, but these companies will actually spotlight dropping domains with obvious major TM issues.

Seems to me if domainers can scan through thousands of names daily and avoid TM issues, massive companies should do the same. If not they need to be held accountable.

Brad

 

[DN BROKER]

I agree, all companies who profit from TM's need to be hold accountable!

 

[Fearless]

I remember thinking way back when Signature Domains was grabbing drops for Kevin Ham for premium prices, that ICANN would soon shut down that practice. I was wrong.

 

[bmugford]

Currently on Pool's featured list -

wwwwalmart.com

This is ridiculous. These companies could create a master TM list and block 95% of the obvious TM domains from being featured at least.

Why don't they? I think the answer is obvious. These type of domains help their bottom line.

Brad

 

[amplify]

wwwwalmart.com

Airtel.com was one thing, but a blatant WWW TM typo? Pool.com is just as bad as the TWENTY people bidding on this at Namejet.

 

[katherine]

Indeed, the real culprits are the bidders. In a perfect world nobody should be bidding on names they are not entitled to.
Personally I doubt that it is the obvious TM holder (Airtel India) that has been bidding in the auction as they could probably get it for free. Winning bid: $76,000.
Now I could see the name parked for a few weeks then hit with a UDRP. Let's see who the lucky winner is k:

 

[DN BROKER]

idiots - what are they thinking? $35K can buy you a generic .com!

 

[katherine]

idiots - what are they thinking? $35K can buy you a generic .com!

Exactly. You can buy solid and sustainable domains for 76K... not 35K, that was yesterday while the auction was still running

 

[amplify]

idiots - what are they thinking? $35K can buy you a generic .com!

If it's a domainer who has 76K to burn knowing the risk, maybe he has all the generic .com's he can handle and making that in PPC a day...

 

[snicksnack]

someone who can afford to pay $76k for a domain in a drop is most likely not an idiot.

It is impossible for the auction houses as well as for domainers to scan and filter out all TM domains. One might think it is a generic, but someone in Vietnam, Laos or Mali has a valid trademark.

 

[mattbodis]

No, the bidder IS NOT as smart as you think.

That domain is NOT worth 76k. Someone bid based on Alexa stats and traffic estimator stats. These stats are wrong because they are giving daily page views and rank based on vodafone.es, which is where the domain was forwarded.

Haha, someone just flushed 76k straight down the toilet.

Lesson learned.

If you put "airtel.com" in alexa it'll say "vodafone.es". Someone just got too trigger happy. Didn't do their research. It has happened many times before.

The deal would've been a steal if that traffic that is projected on alexa and other sites was the actual traffic - but it isn't.

 

[amplify]

Who really knows at this point? It could possibly be for a name for a call center or something along those lines-- which wouldn't violate the trademark. We just have to wait for the whois to update.

 

[snicksnack]

I believe that the buyer wasn't that sloppy not to see that the traffic was alexa of vodafone.es

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

At first glance the name seemed plausable to be owned and used easily without the Indian company being able to make a case that holds water. Then I looked closer and found within the last 3 years and accepted as late as last year they obtained TM's on the term in other countries including the US. Considering the registrant is NEW now and highest and best use for telecommunications, the new owner just spent $76k to use it for what? The funny part is he cant even tie it up in Over seas courts lol

I have no doubt traffic is incredible but if he doesnt plan to infringe, why buy? Not sure whos parked page that is ( new owner or drop company ) but it already is infringing on use. If this name dropped even 8-9 months ago it was super clean, now a time bomb.

 

[mattbodis]

There's not alot of traffic to it. Company that dropped it wouldn't pay 76k to get it back. There was multiple bidders. The only logical explanation to me is a sloppy domainer. He either won't pay, or will pay and park it.

Why else would someone bid 76k for this domain if not the fact that Alexa is showing stats for a different site instead? If it ain't a sloppy bidder than I don't know what else it can possibly be.

And there's no time bomb haha. Less than 0.1% of TM infridgement names ever make it to WIPO. It's actually less than 0.01% but whatever. If anything's a time bomb it's your generics being a victim of reverse hijacking.

 

[DomainsInc]

There's not alot of traffic to it. Company that dropped it wouldn't pay 76k to get it back. There was multiple bidders. The only logical explanation to me is a sloppy domainer. He either won't pay, or will pay and park it.

Why else would someone bid 76k for this domain if not the fact that Alexa is showing stats for a different site instead? If it ain't a sloppy bidder than I don't know what else it can possibly be.

And there's no time bomb haha. Less than 0.1% of TM infridgement names ever make it to WIPO. It's actually less than 0.01% but whatever. If anything's a time bomb it's your generics being a victim of reverse hijacking.

not only that but there had to be more than one person to think it was worth this much to get it that high in the first place.

 

[Ukrainian]

Airtel.net/info/biz are owned by vodafone, so, it seems that vodafone just forgot to renew 76k$?

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

When I pay $76k for something and it " might " get taken away with no refund, thats a time bomb and the rate at which various names, good names ( typos ) and the company that holds the tm persue even if small is much larger when you spent $76k. And the figures of.0X% may apply to ALL names but the goodies arnt so lucky.

 

[katherine]

someone who can afford to pay $76k for a domain in a drop is most likely not an idiot.

At least one guy was stupid enough to spend low $$$,$$$ on porsche.me and other TM domains.
And don't get me started on those who have 'invested' $$,$$$ on .tel domains

Often we have proof there is more money than common sense in this industry.
There is no shortage of suckers, and when they drop out, another flock will pick up where the others left.

 

[GeorgeK]

It could be a fake bid. I got an email offering it as an "investment" today, saying that I need to rush because he has only 7 days to pay Pool.com, lol.