Even after Bernard Berrian realized it would be far less costly to actually pay the registrant of BernardBerrian.com the $2k + NFL tickets and an autographed football as requested, he decided to go for the moral victory instead. The former registrant of Berrian’s .com Ryan Perkins originally marketed the domain for sale on craigslist for $1000. When Berrian finally showed interest in the domain Perkins doubled the price and also demanded highly sought after tickets as well as Berrian’s autograph on a football with a thank you note for securing BernardBerrian.com. Berrian revealed in an interview that was the straw that broke the camels back and made his decision to take Perkins to court.
Bernard Berrian won the federal lawsuit he filed and has received BernardBerrian.com, it currently it does not resolve to any website. Like many athletes, the twitter and social networking craze made Berrian more concious about just how important and valuable owning your own .com is.
I still can’t believe the registrant had the balls enough to ask for Berrian to write a thank you note on the ball along with his autograph. Cybersquatters just don’t learn that the worst way to sell a famous person their domain name is by taking it public.. reminds me of the CmonSon.com story I wrote about last month.
I am new to the domain business and a friend told me that it can be profitable to purchase domains of upcoming star athletes. So, before I purchase and develop some sites I want to understand what is considered cybersquatting and what isnt. Tim Tebow is a famous college football player, so let use him as an example. If you owned Timtebow.com and developed a fan site and said the page was unofficial, could you place ads on the site trying to sell Tim Tebow jerseys and other merchandise affiliated with Tim or his university without issue?
If Tim Tebow came to you and wanted the rights to TimTebow.com would you have to turn the domain over to him or face litigation, because as long as you arent using his name or likeness to profit I dont see what the issue is
As you can see it can be profitable, but that does not mean it is legal or moral. Here’s another person that thought registering prospective athletes .coms and developing relevant sites on them was a good idea until he got slapped with a $100k+ fine: http://bit.ly/16hCTU
I’m sure there are many athletes that settle under the radar for their .coms because it’s cheaper than taking the registrants to court but that does not make it worth doing in my opinion. In years past I had one domain sale to a celebrity, that was his exact .com. I’ll write a post about it soon… stay tuned.
I don’t recommend or condone going after .coms of famous athletes or celebrities. You’ll soon realize it’s far more rewarding to develop and promote your own websites for profit.
whoooot! Football Season is finally here. My Favorite time of year