During the last few days, a tremendous variety of publications wrote about Taylor Swift (or most likely her representatives) registering .Porn and .Adult domain names. There were articles from publications such as USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Fortune, Entertainment Weekly, CBS News, and many other news outlets from around the world.
In my opinion, this “news” topic is not news at all, and I don’t really understand what all the fuss is about. In fact, I think this tweet from Directnic says it best:
Let's be adults: Registering domain names that protect your branding is smart and proactive. Just ask @taylorswift13. http://t.co/5Bj4DHJyN6
— Directnic.com (@Directnic) March 23, 2015
When it comes to domain name registrations, companies need to be diligent and proactive. Companies need to protect their trademarks, especially when it comes to urls that could be used in an embarrassing manner or in a way that could confuse a customer or prospect.
For Taylor Swift and her brand, I would presume most domain extensions don’t need to be protected. Sure, perhaps her reps might want to keep TaylorSwift.Ninja or TaylorSwift.Bike out of someone else’s hands, but those are probably not worth protecting in the same way that TaylorSwiftNinja.com isn’t worth protecting. There’s only so much a company can do to protect its brands.
Most major companies spend a significant amount of money on proactive domain name registrations. It is far cheaper registering domain names that should be out of the hands of others than chasing down domain owners via the legal system.
I think Swift and her management are wise for grabbing domain names that likely would have been taken by others. It’s silly how much press has been given to this particular topic of brand protection, although the “Taylor Swift” porn headlines were probably too good to miss. Hopefully there are other celebrities and brand management teams who read this news and opt to be proactive with their brand protection rather than having to use the legal system to obtain domain names.
Taylor Swift is making buzz, and newspapers using her popularity to getting viral.
For example this news title: Taylor Swift is Buying Porn Sites Apparently (from etonline.com)