AI tools can be incredibly useful when marketing domain names, but they also introduce new risks that sellers may not realize. Many of us are now using AI to help sell our domain names. From using AI to generate descriptions and logos on our own and via platforms, it is a helpful set of tools. AI is great, but it can also expose domain names to risks. Attorney John Berryhill has highlighted some of these risks on X, and I think domain investors need to be more aware.
One issue that’s starting to become problematic is the way AI-generated descriptions and logos might unintentionally incorporate signals from existing trademarks, potentially putting your domain listing in jeopardy. AI might associate a descriptive term with a specific industry or business because an existing company has a brand in that industry.
My company owns Embrace.com, which I use as a platform for to sell my .com domain names. If, for example, someone lists Embrace.xyz for sale on a marketplace that uses AI to generate domain descriptions, the AI might detect online signals tied to Embrace.com and suggest that Embrace.xyz would be ideal for a domain name or sales platform because that’s what it inferred from its research.
AI models don’t necessarily understand trademark boundaries. Most typically generate content based on patterns, likely without much legal context. If the trademark owner were to come across the description on a domain name for sale that could be considered infringing, or if a generated logo looks too similar to an existing brand, it could cause legal issues for the domain name owner.
This risk doesn’t just apply to well-known brand names. AI might pick up on industry terms, slogans, or commercial use cases tied to active brands and blend that into a sales listing without the seller realizing it. It would be particularly difficult for a domain investor to detect this on smaller or localized brands.
If you use AI to help with your domain name sales, it is in your best interests to review the generated content carefully – from the description to the logo to examples of potential uses. AI can be helpful and time saving, but it doesn’t protect you from trademark issues. That part is still up to you to do on your own.
Great advice… We incorporated our DNTrademark feature into our AgentDAO platform so it checks for such issues before deploying the agents task.. Needs to get better but def. a feature that is a must for good domains and min. risk exposure.
I personally don’t use AI tools. I don’t like them. I don’t like much of anything AI related, including ChatGPT.
It has nothing to do with being a domainer, but AI is another conduit like Apps that is taking a piece of the Internet pie away from domainers.
First it was Google, then Apps now AI.
The general public are not warming up to AI like corporations were hoping they would.
But that’s a good thing for domains
“The general public are not warming up to AI like corporations were hoping they would”
You’re 100% wrong and the truth is the 100% opposite. So much so that the impact on domain users is like a nuclear apocalypse. Just look into it if you can do so honestly. And make no mistake: I don’t use the word “apocalypse” lightly or casually, because the real Apocalypse and the Book of Revelation happen to be true.
And before you make sport of that, I’m the “John” with the 170’s IQ who also used to be a fed (briefly). (Okay well that was my highest of two, but the second was still good.)
Signed,
John – 99.9% end user for years already, only .1% still a “domainer”
Ai-gen tools have been and will continue to create content that infringes trademarks, copyrights, etc.
The big companies owning the IP def could enforce. The big companies infringing, and sued, most likely will just pay and settle. Small-time players usually don’t have the resources to engage in litigation.
I’ve been working with AI tools since 2016, and I’ve been testing AI tools that have not been released to users yet, by way of an AI advisory role with a few AI companies.
AGI or Super Intelligence, is here, it’s just not “evenly distributed” yet,
What is the purpose of AI? Who created it? Who maintains it?
The answer to those 3 questions will tell your EVERYTHING as to whether you should use it for domains or anything else.
One of the main purposes is to create cash flow = revenue for the governments (among many other reasons such as brainwashing). How better to create revenue than to get domain investors into a legal pickle with UDRPs or lawsuits, tens/hundreds or thousands in legal and court fees? Or how about to create easy domain acquisition (theft) targets for themselves to benefit from? It is not in “their” interests to create “safe” AI for YOU to use… it’s a tool for THEIR use, at YOUR expense, if you are naive enough to use it blindly. Don’t trust it.
“They” give you everything that they WANT you to have, the stuff they DON’T want you to have is hidden from you. Think about that.
I agree with my former AI mentor, Geoffrey Hinton, the Godfather of Deep Neural Networks (i.e.) Deep Learning) while working as a CTO of an AI startup in Canada between 2016-2017:
“Ai is the biggest invention since the wheel”
“Ai poses the biggest risk to humanity.”
I can see how some could say, asteroids, nukes, plagues, climate disasters.
But keep in mind Ai is already capturing the attention and time and resources of tens of millions via “conversation friends”, “companionship”, “ai gf/bf”, “homework buddies”, “hangout pals”, and we’re just in the initial phase of “Having Already Aced the Turing Test” bots.
Next phase: reasoning complete, albeit with only minor hallucinations.
What I’ve been able to accomplish with AI tools has been “perplexing” (no pun with perplexity.ai) and mind-boggling. Better and more accurate algorithms for discovering biomarkers, more timely delivery of insulin to patients with Type 1 diabetes, not to mention, presentations, research, short films.
But I also acknowledge AI is out of the genie’s bottle, or is it the pandora’s box?
The goal of reaching superintelligence also comes with a Faustian bargain.
Much power, but also a multitude of risks: bad actors, ai-social-engineering, non-alignment of human values…
And yes, we’ve lived through terrorist attacks, climate disasters, a pandemic and in a world where nuclear bombs serve as alarms and sentinels to “mutually assured destruction” for most of the globe.
Ai is different. It comes as a friend. A helper. Then a job taker. Then a hyper-smart and over-qualified underling. And it never sleeps. Never comes in late or with a hangover or medicated.
Until one day…