Football players union gears up for possible lockout by buying domain name.
Is a lockout of National Football League players likely in 2011? NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith told ESPN that, on a scale from 1-10, the likelihood of a lockout is a 14. That sounds serious.
Perhaps to gain an upper hand, the NFL Players Association just bought the domain name NFLLockout.com. Seller Eric Gargiulo tells Domain Name Wire that he sold the domain name for $25,000 to the union.
That’s not a bad return for Gargiulo, given that he just registered the domain name last September. It’s also the best possible outcome he could have expected; the National Football League could have probably won the domain name in a domain name arbitration case.
Both NFLLockout.net and NFLLockout.org are also registered, but the owners of the domain names is using whois privacy to shield their identies.
Jorge Monasterio says
Who owns the copyright on NFL?
Andrew Allemann says
@ Jorge – National Football League has a trademark for ‘NFL’ in a number of categories
Jorge Monasterio says
I meant the trademark… 🙂
Jorge Monasterio says
So, is the players association allowed to infringe on that mark?
Andrew Allemann says
I would imagine they have some rights in it, or a license to ‘NFL’ for certain purposes.
Antony Van Couvering says
Sigh. If they had .nfl, they wouldn’t have to worry about people mistaking some domain name with “nfl” in it for an authorized NFL name.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Antony – right, because then no one would register NFLLockout.com?
Andrew Allemann says
There’s probably a fair use angle for the NFL Players Association, too
Steve M says
Sigh indeed.
If they had .nfl, they’d have blown $250,000+ of their members very hard-earned money to own a junk extension … that they’d be saddled with until they dumped the thing once they’d realized the huge mistake they’d made.
More propagandizing courtesy of the folks of Mindless Machines.
Chef Patrick says
I would assume this purchase would hurt their rights to defend against other NFL type domain names. Not a smart move by the NFL in my opinion.
domain novice says
The seller didn’t have a TM license to use the term NFL.
If it was strictly a blog then he wasn’t infringing.
If he had ADs then he was.
Considering the traffic, Valuate states it is worth $ 870. 🙂
domain guy says
yes there is a fair use application. indeed
nfl players association is a legitimate operation seperate from the nfl…thereby they have a legal interest in the trademark nfl.in addition the players association will be broadcasting their interests and news is a legal use reguardless who owns the trademark with a proper disclosure notice.
@domainnovice does valuate know the brand value of the nfl? over 8 billion dollars so valuate as no value in this context.domain tools have limited value.there is more to an nfl trademark than type in visitors.just try to get an nfl liscense to use the nfl treademark…..
domain novice says
Quote –
“does valuate know the brand value of the nfl? over 8 billion dollars so valuate as no value in this context.”
I was being sarcastic.
🙂
Pointing out the weakness of automated domain valuation.
I also love that domaining .com displays domains for sale that have a for sale price which is 10 to 15% of market valuation price generated at valuate .com (sister site).
LOL
Offside says
@ Chef who said “I would assume this purchase would hurt their rights to defend against other NFL type domain names.”
Your assumption is wrong here. The fact that they chose to purchase the domain name as opposed to trying to acquire it through some formal redress action does nothing to weaken their rights in any trademark interest they have. Their actions amount to nothing more than a “choice” on their part.
And it is quite possible that the union itself has no real or legitimate interesst in the nfl trademark other than being a licencee of same from the league in which case the union itself could not bring an action for infringement on domain names incorporating the mark as they are not the rightfull owners of the trademark.
Either way the fact that they chose to pay over litigate is no big deal and is the kind of decision that is made daily in corporate america.
Chef Patrick says
@Offside – From my understanding a trademark holder must at least attempt to recover all trademark infringing properties. If they don’t, similar domain owners may show those examples in their defense.
I’m not an attorney, this is just my understanding of trademark law.