Company will charge modest service fee on “Extortion domain”.
Brand protection domain name registrar MarkMonitor says it understands its clients will feel compelled to pay for a .sucks domain name, but it won’t profit from the registrations.
The company says it will charge just $25 above wholesale for the domain names. The registry has set a suggested retail price of $2,499 for a .sucks sunrise registration. Even without charging a mark-up, brand holders should expect to pay well over $1,000 for a sunrise domain name registration.
.Sucks has a business model that, well, sucks.
As reported on TheDomains, owners of popular brands and companies that have protected their trademarks in other extensions are likely to pay more to register a domain name.
People that want to register a domain name to gripe about a company will pay comparatively little. People who use a registry-endorsed platform for gripe sites can pick up domains for just $10 a year.
The registry juxtaposes the power of .sucks with the civil rights movement. I’m not kidding.
Companies might just swallow the extortion fee and pay up. It might be difficult to get a .sucks domain returned through a UDRP, especially if both the brand holder and registrant are in the United States.
That said, if a registrant offers to sell a brand.sucks to the trademark holder, or tries to monetize a gripe site, a company could probably get the domain name through a UDRP. When it comes time to pay for renewal, however, they’ll have to pay up.
David J. Walker says
Well, I’ve gotten many C&D’s for ENCSSucks.com for “TM infringement” and slandering a multi-million dollar corporation. However, I will fight it until Congress dismantles the program for overseas service members purchasing an ‘intangible’ item.
My ethos is stronger than forging signatures for a couple hundred extra. Even, thousands.
Quit on the spot.
I had a brief conversation with Jason about my situation, and will put him on, if ENCS pursues the case (though, PayPal lost, twice, so I’m not too concerned).