Look no further than a Rocky Mountain News article to understand why.
What happens when a cybersquatter claims he’s a domainer, and then tries to differentiate himself from a cybersquatter? It gives domainers (i.e., domain investors) a bad name.
An article in The Rocky Mountain News covers Leon Lee, a man who has cybersquatted on several professional baseball players’ names.
Leon Lee jumped online and grabbed the domain name ClintHurdle.com the day the Rockies beat the Diamondbacks to go up 3-0 in the National League Championship Series.
A few days later, as the club prepared to battle the Red Sox in the World Series, the Union City, Calif., man paid less than $20 to register KazMatsui.com and YorvitTorrealba.com.
Lee, 32, had secured MattHolliday.com three months before. Though Holliday failed to win the Most Valuable Player award, coming in second, that online real estate is especially valuable.
It’s bad enough that he’s cybersquatting and coming out point blank to admit it. But then it gets worse. Lee explains to the paper that he’s not cybersquatting. Nope, he’s just a domainer. A cybersquatter, Lee explains, is someone who registers trademarks with the intent to sell them.
Lee sought to draw a distinction between the activity and “cyber-squatting.” That typically refers to people buying up domain names of businesses or celebrities with the intent of selling them for a profit.
Hey Lee, meet me at Camera 3.
Psst…over here. You with me? You see, registering a celebrity’s name and parking it is cybersquatting (unless, of course, you have the same name or its a common name). You’d easily lose any UDRP decision, especially now that you’ve come out and told the world your intentions. You can register a politician’s name (it’s free speech), but celebrity names are considered trademarks. And by calling yourself a domainer, you’re giving the rest of us a bad name.
Dave Zan says
Not necessarily, Andrew. A person can become a celebrity through various ways, but not all make money off it.
What Leon’s doing, though, isn’t helping domainers any.
On the side, that article’s got something else wrong. 😀
Andrew says
Yes, not 100% of the time does a celebrity get rights to her name. But registering the domain of a MLB player is clearly cybersquatting in this case.
Stuart says
Andrew, you reminded me to review my list of potential TM names and have decided to make sure I unload them all within a week. Thanks for the push.
Pete says
I helped out a customer of mine register a domain. He is a James Beard Award celebrity chef who will be writing a book of all his recipes. The domain was dropped and was not bought in auction. I called him and suggested he register his name for 10 years asap. He did!
Another customer of mine daughters husband is a NY Yankee’s pitcher – sadly his name has been bought up by a cybersquatter.
Kelly lieberman says
I started buying domains late this summer – before i knew anything about cybersquatting or TM infringement as far as domains go.. Well, I came up with a couple of doozies for my favorite casino in Vegas, where I am a very frequent invited guest. I was just dabbling in a little fun name play, thinking perhaps that I could show their marketing dream team a little Mid-western talent!!
I never intended to squat or sell these domains. In fact, I wrote a very nice letter to my “second home” offering these awesome domains as a gift to the casino owner
with a little free marketing advice thrown in. To my utter amazement they wrote me back, saying “Thanks, but no thanks.”
I am still walking around with my jaw on the floor… My casino host called a few days later and offered me an offer I won’t be refusing – so I will be enjoying a nice long weekend in Vegas very soon.
As long as most of “Corporate” doesn’t get it, I feel like my opportunity to really make it in this industry is extended! I am just going to enjoy the ride until they do…
Andrew says
Pete – depending on what shows up on the Yankees’ pitcher landing page, he should be able to get it.
Kelly, certainly an interesting story! Do you know if the domains you own are getting any traffic? You might be able to show the casino why the domains are valuable.
DomainerPro says
I left a comment on that Rocky Mountain News article to set the record straight.
Grahame Roberts says
Hello. I own several domains and have ran a site for over 13 years. Now, the actress who the site is about has sent me a Domain Name Notice of Infringment. Can they take them from me..? I own chloesevigny.com, .info, .net, and chloestevenssevigny.com. I offered to give up .com and .net as long as I could keep .info and have a link to my site from the official one…And since I put so many years into the site (never making a single dime from it), I requested that I could have a page on their official site..?
Any advice is geatly appreciated.
Grahame Roberts
Jake says
I want to know if the name is Leo, Leon or Leonard Lee. I used to know a family who lived on a corner house in Union City and yes they had a bunch of cars on the premises and sidewalk because the family had 6 people living there. The house shown on the local news sure looks like it’s the same house. It would be cool if I actually knew someone from high school was is a famous and a felon!