Twitter related .me domain names sells for five figures.
The latest premium .me domain name auction is coming to an end, and Tweet.me looks to be the winner at $11,505. I can see this being used for a Twitter service, but I’m a bit concerned about all of the services popping up that use variants of Twitter and Tweet in their names: could Twitter ever come after them for trademark infringement?
Lease.me sold for $7,605 with 139 bids and Massage.me sold for $6,005 with 32 bids. Other sales included:
Name/Price/Bids
preview.me $2,605 52
only.me $2,540 166
excuse.me $2,505 140
rome.me $2,015 103
zoe.me $2,011 55
england.me $2,005 70
aweso.me $2,005 93
escorts.me $2,005 124
brand.me $1,805 221
budget.me $1,805 24
bookmark.me $1,755 120
france.me $1,510 48
view.me $1,505 49
social.me $1,455 51
sanfrancisco.me $1,330 63
oglasi.me $1,155 64
arizona.me $1,116 51
ohio.me $1,116 65
bring.me $1,110 80
It appears that at least one domain name in the latest auction was sold at a previous auction, so perhaps it was never paid for.
The next premium .me domain name auction takes place on NameJet June 5.
Reece Berg says
Andrew,
I was curious myself about all the companies starting up Twitter-related sites using what would appear to infringe on Twitter’s mark, so I did a little googling and came across this: http://tinyurl.com/qkudxb
For those without time to read, Alex Payne from Twitter says: “There are certainly many applications out there that include “Twitter”
as part of their name, but we prefer that you not do so. “Twit”,
“Tweet”, etc. are all fine. “
Robbie says
I too would be worried that Twitter might come after me, especially if they get sold – The new owners would come after all TM regged names to protect there investment.
Robert Haastrup-Timmi says
Surely, if you are using Twitter in your domain, then that looks like a TM issue. However “Tweet” domains should have no issues whatsoever. Tweet is a dictionary word with no TM rights associated to it. I’ve got a few slated for development:
TweetAdvertising.com
TweetLawyers.com
TweetShopping.com
TweetPressrelease.com and a few others.
Tweeting is clearly a whole new eco-system taking the global media by storm. I’ve had several Lawyers signing up to supremecourt.com because of my tweets.
If you can get the “keyword” associated to your domain on twitter, I strongly advise it, as it leads to a high page ranking for your site on google if developed.
Twit Store says
Robbie made a great point. Twitter may appear lax, but in the event Twitter get sold, the new owners will go to great lengths to secure their marks.
Not every business pays attention to branding. It could make or break your business.