Brands are surprisingly underrepresented in the sports-venue domain name space, a FairWinds Partners study found. In fact, more third parties own domain names combining a brand name and one of eight selected sports terms – arena, center, classic, cup, field, park, stadium, tournament – than the corresponding brands do. This leaves brands open to trademark infringers, cybersquatters, and others who may have fair use claims.
As the Seattle Seahawks trounced the Denver Broncos on Super bowl Sunday, MetLife was reaping the game-day rewards of its sponsorship: TV exposure in shots of the stadium, tagged photos, countless press hits, and endless social media mentions. Leading up to game-day, the website metlifestadium.com was drawing tens of thousands of visitors a month looking for information, which means tens of thousands of visitors a month exposed to the MetLife brand. Now, as the world turns its attention to the eagerly anticipated Olympics, 10 sponsors are also expecting massive branding success.
Yet, despite the potential for heavy traffic and visibility, FairWinds Partners found that brands are surprisingly underrepresented in the sports-venue domain name space. In fact, more third parties own domain names combining a brand name plus one of eight selected sports terms – arena, center, classic, cup, field, park, stadium, tournament – than the corresponding brands do. This leaves brands open to trademark infringers, cybersquatters, and others who may have fair use claims.
- Only 8 percent of the sports-related terms combined with Fortune 100 brand names are owned by the corresponding brand, according to FairWinds’ study; 74 percent of the combined domain names are still available for registration; and 17 percent are owned by an entity other than the corresponding brand.
- Of the 10 Worldwide Olympic Partners, only one is using a “BrandOlympics.com” combination. Four Olympic sponsors don’t even own their own BrandOlympics.com.