Month: April 2013

Doing Good on Digital: How TOMS inspired FairWinds alum Vincent Ko and his partners to start Panda Sunglasses

Posted on by jbourne

This past Christmas was my first at FairWinds. I won’t lie, I’m a bit of a grinch – and I was not prepared for how seriously the founding partners and my coworkers would take the holidays.  In addition to the company holiday dinner, Secret Santa exchange, and awesome tech gifts from Phil & Josh, we each received a bamboo tube containing conspicuously hip black sunglasses.

I must have had a bewildered look on my face upon opening the gift, because Phil Lodico explained that a former employee, Vincent Ko, had started eco-friendly Panda Sunglasses in the spirit of TOMS shoes “buy one, get one” model and that FairWinds wanted to support this socially-conscious start-up by buying everyone in the office a pair.

I was reminded of this conversation when I read a BrandChannel article today on TOMS shoes and the other, similar brands inspired by TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie’s model:

“What Mycoskie may not have bargained for was the amazing race he started for companies to become socially conscious. For example, the TOMS model directly inspired Vincent Ko, Luke Lagera, and Michael Mills to start Panda Sunglasses. Making their sunglasses from sustainable bamboo, the trio also help fund eye exams and free eyeglasses through the TOMA Foundation. Ko told USA Today, ‘We figured if we could make a fraction of the impact that Blake Mycoskie made with a different item, we’d be doing a good job.’”

But the Christmas gift of Panda sunglasses was not the only experience I thought of when I read the BrandChannel article. I also thought of Georgetown University’s participation in “One Day Without Shoes.” You can watch a brief video on the event here. I also reviewed the TOMS campaign in my digital strategies class, which I am taking as a graduate student in Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies, and my program also participated (the following post is to the Facebook page for the Masters in P.R. and Corporate Communications):

How does TOMS get people so engaged to the point that they would take off their shoes and allow their bare feet to be photographed!?

In addition to fulfilling the desire of many to “do good”, these companies are thoroughly and strategically digital. Take a look at the pages of photos on the One Day Without Shoes photo wall, the website space devoted to the winner of the Barefoot Challenge (Sweet Peas Boutique – which can now boast about this on its social media platforms), and the offer of a “tool kit” for those who want to drive participation.

Perhaps following TOMS’s lead, Panda’s website, wearpanda.com, engages fans, customers, and interested users through videos, photos, and Twitter (#wearpanda).

One company has gone so far as to become the digital platform for companies and individuals “doing good” through their products: www.good.is. This website cleverly takes advantage of Iceland’s ccTLD, .IS (you can find out more about this trick here).

TOMS, Panda Sunglasses, and Good.is all demonstrate how powerful digital strategy can be, especially when there is a socially responsible offering involved. I think that the TOMS website has worked its magic on me, too. I’m thinking FairWinds should start participating in TOMS One Day – after all, nothing looks better with eco-friendly sunglasses than bare feet.

The Armenian Connection: Will.i.am Owes Personalized URL to Country That Gave Us Reality TV Star Kim Kardashian and Reddit Co-Fo

Posted on by jbourne

Go ahead – type will.i.am into your browser bar.  Ever the master of personal branding, William Adams (a.k.a. will.i.am) has cleverly registered the subdomain “will” in the domain name “i” which is registered to i.am.symbolic, LLC within the Armenian country code top-level domain .am.

As we’ve noted before, country code TLDs have been used in all sorts of clever domain names, from bit.ly (Libya’s country code) to Universal Pictures’ despicable.me (Montenegro’s country code).  WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg took advantage of Trinidad & Tabago’s ccTLD when he registeredma.tt.

Expect to see more of these clever, easy-to-“direct-navigate” domain names starting in the late summer to early fall of this year.  No, we’re not predicting an explosion of new countries in Eastern Europe or island nations in the Caribbean – but we are awaiting the launch of ICANN’s new gTLD program through which companies have applied for and will be, in many cases, granted generic and brand top level domains.  These new top level domains will offer practically infinite opportunities for masters of branding – personal or otherwise – to create clever domain names. “

The introduction of more top-level domains could change the way we navigate the Internet if enough companies and individuals catch on to intuitive domain registration like janedoe.ninja or johnsmith.dad,” says FairWinds Co-Founder Josh Bourne.  “It may be so much easier to remember these addresses that choppier, less intuitive addresses — like those with many backslashes and subdomains — will fall into relative disuse.”

Decisions: Hand in Hand

Posted on by slevy

Politics and domain names often walk hand in hand these days. Organizing for Action, a non-profit organization aligned with the Democratic Party, was recently unsuccessful in recovering two domain names containing its name: organizingforaction.com and organizingforaction.org. In addition, the domain name organizingforaction.net was registered by a third party who indicated that he would refuse to sell or transfer the domain to the organization. Initially, the domain pointed to the home page for the National Rifle Association (“NRA”) and now points to a YouTube video of Ben Carson’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast.

In its decision, the three-member UDRP Panel noted that while Organizing for Action did satisfy the requirement that the domain names are “confusingly similar, if not legally identical”, to its name, it did not have a trademark registration and insufficient time had passed since the first use of the name to create common law trademark rights. The Panel also noted that the “non-distinctive nature of the expression” was a significant factor in its decision. In addition, it is interesting to note that the Panel cited one of the WIPO Panel Views on Selected UDRP Questions despite the fact that this case was filed with the National Arbitration Forum.

Based on the above factors, the Panel ordered that the complaint be denied. Organizing for Action will, for the time being at least, rely on its https://my.barackobama.com/page/s/organizing-for-action microsite. It will be interesting to see if Organizing for Action pursues other domain names ahead of the 2014 Congressional races and if its pending trademark application is granted, perhaps giving it a renewed opportunity to go after against these domain names again.

Bank Pays Price for Failing to Renew Domain Name

Posted on by jbourne

Remembering to renew any sort of membership or subscription can be a pain, but it’s really a problem when your business model relies upon a specific and secure Internet address.

Regions Bank experienced this on Monday when, apparently, the bank failed to renew the registration for Regions.com.  As Regions’ head of ebanking explained in a YouTube video posted to the banks Facebook page on Tuesday, “the registration for Regions.com expired over the weekend and we didn’t renew. Even though we renewed it early Monday morning, it takes time for the computer servers around the world to be updated with that renewed address.”

As you can see from the Facebook screenshot dated 3:55pm on Thursday, April 18, at least one customer traveling in Mexico was still unable to access his online bank account and another is questioning the stability of the bank itself – based on the accessibility of the website.

There are simple ways to avoid this situation.  The first is to set domains, especially critical domain names, to auto-renewal.  The second is to have an outside consulting firm, like FairWinds, audit your domain name portfolio and manage renewals for you. This provides a second level of assurance that a damaging failure like the one Regions experienced won’t happen to your business.

The Big Screen and Your Computer Screen: New gTLDS could boost Hollywood movie promotion/marketing

Posted on by jbourne

This past weekend I took my children to see DreamWorks’ The Croods and among the endless previews I focused my domain name radar on an ad for the upcoming sequel to Despicable Me and its advertised URL, Despicable.me.

It got me to thinking that soon, businesses of all kinds will be able to experiment with domain names in over 500 open new gTLDs (think Hunger.Games, Mr.Mom, Iron.Man, you get the idea).

Some studios have used top level country codes to create promotional websites that reflect the movie title. For example, Universal Studios registered “despicable” in Montenegro’s .ME when promoting Despicable Me in 2010. Universal Pictures still using the domain Despicable.me, where you can find trailers for the sequel.

Of course, not every movie title is so well suited to available extensions. Two years ago, FairWinds Partners looked at how film studios and their distribution partners use domain names to promote movies. Our study found there was little consistency or convention. Among others, we examined the nominees for the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as the highest grossing movie for each year from 2000 to 2010. In total, only ten of the 72 movies in the study, or about 14 percent, advertised a Title.com address in promotional materials. The most commonly used alternative was TitleMovie.com. Several studios used the domain name of the production company that made the movie, rather than a domain that included the movie title in some form.

With the launch of about 550 open, generic new .WORDS starting in 2013, studios are presented with enormous creative promotional possibilities. Pairing the list of applications with the list of upcoming movie launches, we could see domain names such as TheBig.Wedding, or Sin.City that could be a site for the original Sin City movie and promote the sequel: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. How cool would it be to see an action flick title ending in .NINJA, or a nature film with a domain ending in .ECO? If the .MOVIE and .FILM applications move forward, there is no limit to what the tech-savvy studios could do.

Navigate the Internet Carefully

Posted on by jbourne

Our hearts go out to the people of Boston and all those affected by today’s horrific events at the Boston Marathon.

Unfortunately, tragedies like this are exactly when bad actors emerge to play on people’s emotions, using domain names and social media to exploit the good intentions of those who want to express their sympathy. Twitter has already suspended a fake account, @_BostonMarathon, which claimed that it would donate $1 to victims for retweets.

As you look for news or ways to donate time or money, use the utmost caution to ensure you are using properly vetted, legitimate sites.

Decisions: “Nice” Trademark!

Posted on by slevy

The presence or absence of a trademark can sometimes make or break a UDRP case for a Complainant. Nice Car Inc.’s trademark for NICE CAR seemingly played a large role in deciding the outcome in its complaint against choi sung sik over the domain name NiceCar.com, filed with the National Arbitration Forum.

In the case of a default (non-response) by the Respondent, the Panelist made her decision based only on the information that the Complainant presented. The Complainant has owned a US Trademark for NICE CAR in relation to motor vehicle dealerships and repair services since 1975.  Surprisingly, despite some technical issues in the PTO application process and a cancellation action by a competitor claiming prior use, the trademark was never called into question for being descriptive of the Complainant’s services.

Owning rights to such a borderline mark may be unusual, but the Panelist determined that the it was identical or confusingly similar to the NiceCar.com domain name. The Complainant was also able to prove that the Respondent lacked rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name and that he had registered the name in bad faith, as he offered to sell it to the Complainant for $100,000, a sum that greatly exceeds the Respondent’s costs of registering and maintaining the domain name.

Based on the above factors, the Panelist ordered that the domain name be transferred to the Complainant. While the proceedings themselves were somewhat straightforward based on the evidence presented, it’s somewhat unusual for a case involving such a descriptive term to proceed to smoothly. This shows that if the Complainant can satisfy all three requirements and the respondent defaults, a transfer of almost any name is possible.

Decisions: Not Even Close

Posted on by slevy

Sometimes a UDRP complaint comes along which obviously never should have been filed in the first place. The Restored Church of God’s complaint against Alexa Properties, LLC over the domain name RT.org, filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization, falls into that category.

The Ohio-based church likely did not consult outside UDRP experts when filing the complaint, as it was “represented internally,” and this lack of experience contributed to the filing meeting not one, not two, but none of the required elements for domain name transfer.

The Complainant asserted common law rights to the mark “RT”, as it operates a magazine called The Real Truth Magazine, and purportedly uses “RT” as an abbreviation commercially. The Complainant also alleges that consumers are confused by the Respondent’s use of RT.org to host links in lieu of legitimate content and alleges that it offered to buy the domain name from the Respondent for $5,000, only to be countered by a $30,000 price tag.

The Respondent pointed out that his use of the domain name is largely irrelevant for purposes of the UDRP because the Complainant has no prior rights to the mark. The respondent registered RT.org in 1998, a full four years before the Complainant alleges any common law rights to the RT mark, and moreover, those common law rights are very suspect, according to the Panelist.

In the end, the Panelist ordered that the domain name remain with the Respondent, as the Complainant could not prove any rights to the disputed domain name. It also narrowly avoided a finding of reverse domain hijacking.  Complaints like this should be a lesson on how important it is to consult UDRP experts before filing a complaint, because they can save time and money, as well as a brand owner’s valuable reputation.

In Hopes of Streamlining Process, FairWinds CEO Proposes Substantive Changes to New gTLD Registry Agreement

Posted on by jbourne

FairWinds CEO Nao Matsukata is advocating for ICANN to offer an alternative draft Registry Agreement (RA) for Internal Registries, whose needs are uniquely different from those of new gTLD Registries who plan to sell second-level domain names to the public.

Matsukata’s recommendation – made in a letter to ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé dated March 27 – is based on extensive experience. FairWinds associates prepared 150 applications for over 50 corporations, have held numerous client discussions about the new gTLD process, and carefully reviewed the Public Comments.

A separate, specific contract could shorten the negotiation process for Internal Registry applicants, thereby freeing up ICANN’s resources to process applications for public gTLDs. Matsukata believes that this type of substantive change will result in real process improvements for all applicants.

He is also confident that ICANN can modify its current process before gTLD delegations begin.

As Bloomberg BNA reported last week,“Though the turnaround time on new contracts at ICANN is typically not quick, it might be possible for ICANN to publish a new contract in keeping with its current timelines, Matsukata remarked.”