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Saga of Nissan.com

Elliot Silver
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The saga of the domain name Nissan.com is fascinating. For years, Uzi Nissan and the automaker Nissan have fought several court battles for Nissan.com. In December of 2002, a court ruled that Uzi keeps the name but he cannot use the domain name for the following purposes:

“1. Posting Commercial content at nissan.com and nissan.net;
2. Posting advertising or permitting advertising to be posted by third parties at
nissan.com and nissan.net;
3. Posting disparaging remarks or negative commentary regarding Nissan Motor
Co., Ltd. or Nissan North America, Inc. at nissan.com and nissan.net;
4. Placing, on nissan.com or nissan.net, links to other websites containing
commercial content, including advertising; and
5. Placing, on nissan.com or nissan.net, links to other websites containing
disparaging remarks or negative commentary regarding Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
or Nissan North America.” — Source: Nissan.com website

These restrictions essentially prevent Uzi from generating revenue from Nissan.com, causing him to solicit financial support to fend of Nissan in future legal battles. Basically for Uzi, owning Nissan.com is like owning a giant piece of land right next to an active diamond mine, but not being permitted to mine for diamonds. If he would want to sell this piece of real estate, he could potentially open himself up to a UDRP case.

The end goal of most domain investors is to sell their domain names to end users. I can’t think of a better end user for Nissan.com than the automaker. In my opinion, instead of Uzi’s public fight where he is forced to ask for donations to continue to stave off the far wealthier automaker, Uzi should have someone reach out to Nissan on his behalf and sell the name for a hefty sum. He might give up the rights to his domain name, but at this point, the name is worth FAR more to the automaker. This has become a battle of principles, and I believe Uzi might be smart to sell the domain name.

Instead of having to ask for donations, he will be able to give tzedekah and represent his family name and heritage in other ways.

AC/DC Acquires ACDC.com Legitimately

Elliot Silver
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AC/DC wins back website from porn business

According to this news article, AC/DC now owns the domain name ACDC.com. Although the article’s title led me to believe that this was a WIPO decision (“wins” rather than “buys”), it appears they acquired it the old-fashioned way – paying for it. From the article:

“For years the domain name acdc.com was held by a porn site with metal fans perhaps getting more than they bargained for every time they clicked.

But after years of wry tolerance the band’s management in New York has finished negotiations to reclaim the name and launch the brand at its rightful place online.” — Source: News.Com.Au

This really was a smart move by the band’s management team. Considering the amount of traffic the domain name probably receives, the price was clearly significant. The band could have easily tried to take the name in an underhanded way, via WIPO filing, but they opted to go about it the more legitimate way. Had they filed a WIPO, it would have cost the owners quite a bit of money to defend the name, and it might have irritated them enough not to consider selling it had a decision gone in their favor.

Kudos to AC/DC and their management for realizing the importance of ACDC.com, and for buying the domain name that is of highest value to them.

Missed Opportunity: Subdirectory Direct Navigation

Elliot Silver
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Owners of generic domain names know the value of direct navigation traffic, but a quick review of some popular websites leads me to believe they aren’t considering subdirectory direct navigation on their websites. Briefly, a subdirectory is the word or phrase that follows a backslash after the extension on a domain name. In the following example, Boston.com/RedSox, “RedSox” would be the subdirectory.

I frequently navigate to a subdirectory hoping to avoid the front page. In my Red Sox example, I often directly navigate to the Boston Globe’s Red Sox page to save time. If I do this on the Globe’s website, I am sure there are other people who do the same thing on other websites. Oftentimes, a 404 Error page is displayed when directly navigating to subdirectories, proving that many website owners aren’t considering this type-in traffic. Below are a few examples of websites that take subdirectory traffic into consideration:

CNN.com/Sports (forwards to Sports Illustrated)
ESPN.com/Soccer (forwards to ESPNsoccernet.com)
Google.com/Mail (forwards to Gmail)
Yahoo.com/Finance (forwards to Yahoo Finance)

However, there are plenty of ecommerce websites that don’t take this into consideration, possibly to their detriment.
BestBuy.com/Speakers (404 Error)
CircuitCity.com/Speakers (The page requested was not found)
Ebay.com/Speakers (Page Not Found)

Just as some people directly navigate to specific domain names, I believe there are some people who directly navigate to the subdirectories. Although these browsers may not leave the website if they encounter a 404 error page, I think it would be an easy fix to give browsers what they are looking for if they do directly navigate to a subdirectory. It seems that many news websites anticipate this direct navigation, so I think ecommerce websites should consider this traffic as well.

NFLatino.com – The NFL es Muy Inteligente

Elliot Silver
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I just saw a neat advertisement from the National Football League targeting Latino football fans celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. The advertisement is in Spanish with English subtitles, and it directs viewers to NFLatino.com. Knowing that some people may accidentally navigate to NFLLatino.com, the NFL owns the typo of their domain name, and it forwards to the correct website. Its’ a small thing like this that ensures there is no leakage in direct navigation traffic.

FCC.com: Another Frivolous UDRP

Elliot Silver
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FCC.com UDRP Decision

Not only was the Complainant’s transfer request denied, the company was found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking.    It’s good to see cases like this go in favor of the Respondent, as we have seen too many generics lost recently (MBF.com, Aspire.com, and Aman.com are just a few examples in my opinion).    

Unfortunately, because of the way the system was set-up, some people are almost encouraged to file a UDRP for $1,500 rather than attempt to buy the name for much more than this. The most recent sale price for FCC.com was $60,000 (from the decision), so it probably would have taken well over $100,000 for the owner to sell – although he develops his names.    It’s harmful that the company was able to take a chance at receiving control of this great name for a mere $1,500 filing fee.    

The Respondent had to spend quite a bit of money defending his rights to the domain name, but was smart in choosing John Berryhill to represent his rights. It’s too bad he can’t file a claim to recover his expenses for this Reverse Domain Name Hijacking attempt.

Recent Acquisition: AsianVacations.com

Elliot Silver
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2

I believe I just acquired a gem of a domain name in the aftermarket – AsianVacations.com. After seeing CaribbeanVacations.com sell for $130,000 and EuropeanVacations.com sell for $85,000 at yesterday’s TRAFFIC auction, I decided to buy AsianVacations.com. While the Caribbean and Europe are more popular vacation destinations than Asia, I still believe AsianVacations.com can become a great travel website.

If you or anyone you know specializes in Asian vacation planning, please get in touch with me. Perhaps we can work together!

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