Test Masters squabble

Here’s a real life example of the consequences of not securing your company’s domain name.

If you were signing up for a standardized test prep course, would you realize that TestMasters is not the same company as Test Masters? Apparently there’s a big difference between the two–more than just a space. People think they’re signing up for a course from California-based TestMasters and are actually signing up with Houston-based company Test Masters. The California company has offered courses nationwide since 2000 and the Texas company has offered courses nationwide since 2003.

Robin Singh, CEO and author of the course for TestMasters, says the Houston company is trading on his goodwill:

“It’s unnerving that I put 12 years into this company, and it has grown nationally, but people are signing up for the other course because they look at the domain name, testmasters.com,” Singh said.

It probably wasn’t a big deal that Singh didn’t own the TestMasters.com domain when his company was only in California. But it’s a big issue now that the company is national. Anyone who has heard of the course will naturally type in TestMasters.com. Anyone who sees a flyer for the course will type in TestMasters.com to learn more.

Although Singh has built his brand, he might want to launch under a different name. A name with an available URL.