Brand-approved typosquatting? Sort of.
A new domain name parking service promises to help people monetize brand related domain names, such as typos, in a way that brand owners support.
Protected Parking “enables domain owners to monetize brand related domains with the full knowledge and explicit agreement from the brand owner,” according to the company.
If you have typos or traffic domain names that include trademarks, the company will monetize them through the respective company’s affiliate program.
This idea isn’t entirely new. Typosquatting recovery firm CitizenHawk recovers typo domain names on behalf of companies and then monetizes them for a set period of time as payment.
Protected Parking, however, doesn’t facilitate the transfer of the domain names. In fact, it promises to keep the actual domain information confidential from the brand owner.
That a brand would pay for typo traffic might seem surprising. However, I’ve heard of many brands using zero click to acquire their typo traffic, preferring to pay a small amount rather than file UDRPs or file a lawsuit.
Hani Armstrong, Marketing Director for Protected Parking, explains that his company has worked with brand owners for a long time through its company Barefruit. Barefruit has worked with brands through their affiliate programs to monetize ISP error traffic intended for their websites.
“Brands, perhaps understandably, are not willing to work directly with domain owners as they feel it encourages registration of typos,” Armstrong wrote in response to a Domain Name Wire inquiry. “We act as an intermediary for brand owners to regain traffic lost to typo domains, thereby giving them back control of the customer journey but without the cost and hassle of pursuing the UDRP route to recover ownership of the domains.”
The company publishes a list of brands that it works with, and also has an upload tool to analyze your portfolio for matches.
Domain name owners should keep in mind that, while brand owners are paying for this traffic, they’d still prefer that their brands not be typosquatted. Although Protected Parking won’t disclose your domains to trademark holders, there’s nothing stopping a trademark holder from finding your domain through other means and filing a lawsuit or UDRP.
“Well now that i know which brands they’ll be helping me monetize, I’ll just go ahead and take that list and start buying up some typos! Thanks Protected Parking!” – enterprising typosquatter
How do these two sentences describe the same thing:
“Protected Parking ‘enables domain owners to monetize brand related domains with the full knowledge and explicit agreement from the brand owner’”
“Although Protected Parking won’t disclose your domains to trademark holders, there’s nothing stopping a trademark holder from finding your domain through other means and filing a lawsuit or UDRP”
I have no idea why anyone would ever register a typo. but if I were going to register one I would park it at BODIS.com.
I agree lol
btw this idea seems like a great way to ask for a C&D or lawsuit.
This is dumb idea and seems to be contributory trademark infringement. Can’t imagine why a brad owner would pay for (no doubt largely) bogus clicks or why they would do anything to encourage typosquatting. Here is what the owner says on namepros.com “You can monetize StarVucks.com at Protected Parking. We have a deal with the Starbucks affiliate program (and over 250 other major brands) that allows our clients to monetize their brand typos directly on the brands website. As you can imagine, conversions and payout are quite high. We also have brands like hotels.com, Expedia.com, American Express, etc.” https://www.namepros.com/threads/im-looking-to-park-my-first-domain-starvucks-com.848717/
hard to believe…
Hmm. Risky is as risky does.