Texas A&M Buys 12thMan.com Domain Name
There was an article on Chron.com that I found interesting, and I want to share it with you. Texas A&M University privately acquired the 12thMan.com domain name from a company that had been using the domain name for its business but had ceased operations. The seller was unable to share the sale price, presumably due to a non-disclosure agreement.
Apparently, “12th man” is a trademarked term that is owned (and protected) by Texas A&M. According to the Chron.com article, “Texas A&M has been in the midst of an aggressive legal campaign to defend its 12th Man trademark.” In fact, last week, several news outlets reported on the Texas A&M UDRP filing against the  12thManThunder.com domain name.  12thManThunder.com was registered by a Buffalo Bills (NFL) fan who wants the team to stay in Buffalo. It appears that domain name is forwarding to BillsFanThunder.com.
Because of its long ownership history and prior usage, I assume the University would not have been successful using the UDRP process or the legal system to take 12thMan.com from the former owner, but it is always something a domain owner should be cautious about when negotiating with the owner of a trademark, especially if they aggresively defend the mark. Judging by the former owner’s comments in the Chron.com article, it appears he and the University were able to reach a mutually agreeable deal.
One thing I noticed is that the University does not own the .com domain name for its Aggies nickname. Aggies.com is owned by someone who does not appear to be associated with Texas A&M. It’s interesting that the University bought 12thMan.com rather than the Aggies.com domain name for its athletics website.
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todd
The 12thmanfoundation.com is their primary revenue stream for the athletics department bringing in 20 million a year. Probably going to replace that long URL with the much shorter 12thman.com. Big time boosters love to give their money to Texas Football.
Interesting side note, the Seattle Seahawks who used the 12th man term last year throughout their season pays Texas A&M $5,000 per year for licensing rights to use the term. That contract expires in 2016 and obviously if they do renew the contract it will be for much more than $5,000.