At the end of last year I wrote a couple stories about CSC purchasing .tv names that are NHL team related. Devils.tv sold for $10,000 and weeks later Sharks.tv sold for $15,000.
Now over the first couple of months of 2016 it looks like CSC is buying and hand registering full team names. They are now registering names like ChicagoBlackhawks.tv (2-16-16) SanJoseSharks.tv (1-11-16) and they bought a portfolio of 8 names from a reader, Frank Meester.
None of the names are resolving to NHL team sites. There are some full names that are not yet owned, TorontoMapleLeafs.tv is owned by a company called Brand Ark.
Why are they buying those kind of names ? If you have Blackhawks TV why do you need Chicago Blackhawks TV?
But is this legal? Wouldn’t these names all be protected by trademark?
Am I missing something?
Thanks, someone, for explaining.
Pretty sure I’ve seen sharks on TV, but I couldn’t have named 1 NHL team. So hockey is by no means the only legitimate use for Sharks.tv.
@J,
Got to figure that hand-registering ChicagoBlackhawks.tv adds barely 0.1% to the cost of Blackhawks.tv.
Easier to do that then spend any time at all thinking about whether you might one day end up having to buy it from somebody else or litigate. Plus, people will often search with the city name included.
Joseph – You are correct. Not only do they search with the city name, they also type the city name directly in the browser….I have a domain, LosAngelesAngels(dot) com and it gets thousands of direct hits…Not bad for an Angel investing site in development, competing against NewYorkAngels.com.