Panelist sides with SportAccord in objection against .sports.
International Centre for Dispute Resolution has posted an updated list of string confusion objections, and there’s more trouble.
SportAccord, an applicant for the .sport domain, has successfully objected to Donuts’ application for .Sports.
SportAccord argued that “a significant degree of confusion would occur between any TLD string that is understood to be the plural of another TLD string.”
Panelist Scott Donahey sided with SportAccord on the basis that, in addition to visual and auditory similarity, ‘sport’ and ‘sports’ are pronounced the same in French and that .sport is a singular and collective noun, essentially making them synonymous.
Most panels have rejected string confusion objections filed between singular and plural words.
If I were SportAccord, I’d be careful what I say. “.sport” sounds unnatural compared to “.sports,” kind of like having .scissor or .pant or .shoe. A quick google search shows 1.99 billion returns for the term “sport” and 2.42 billion returns for the term “sports”, making it arguably the more common term in language. While baseball.sport sounds fine, who would want NewYork.sport over NewYork.sports? In almost every left of the dot application that isn’t the name of an actual sport, “.sports” sounds more natural to me as the tld.
Pardon – My point being that if one of them have to go, it may not be SportAccord’s preferred choice…
James, I agree. My personal opinion is .sport is one of the worst strings. .Sports is much better. But the way it will be decided who gets it doesn’t involve which one is better.
I agree James, it was an interesting conundrum we faced when acquiring sports photography.com recently for a major new development. The UK also refers to Sport in a plural context, whereas the rest of the English speaking world generally uses Sports. The plural does at least also cover both bases to some degree, making it more valuable and delivering the greater search results. It will also be interesting though to see how other words will be affected. Take our Photography “postfix”, will we see .photography / .photos / .photographs / .photographers / .pix /.photos and .photographer….etc – how far will the possible variations and element of confusion or similarity go?!