Driving back to Florida last week, I couldn’t help notice a couple of billboards for the domain WhoCanISue.com.
Then a few days ago I saw some bus stops and benches for the same domain around town.
So I did what any good domainer would do, ran to see if the dom
ain, CanISue.com was registered.
Not surprisingly the domain was registered and of course, not to the same company paying all that money for the billboards and bus stop advertising.
I was also not shocked to see, when I visited CanISue.com, that the owner was selling the domain.
However, I was quite surprised to see the candor of the owner of the domain on the page he set up.
Not only was he selling the domain, but solely due to the success of the site, WhoCanISue.com, and the likely confusion of typos to his site, and the great reputation of the owner of WhoCanISue.com.
So here’s how his story goes:
“”””Last week a coworker tells me that they heard an advertisment on the radio for a company….WHOCANISUE.com. They are a very reputable company who have already been to the American Bar Association Convention and even time magazine!
I feel that if the company does well and I think they will, there will be many people accidentally falling onto my website. I mean how many times do you type www.google.com, misspell the word and get redirected to another website. Bottom Line: I am putting my domain www.canisue.com up for sale”””
His price is undisclosed but he is accepting offers.
You have to admire this guys honesty, don’t you?
Should the owner of WhoCanISue.com answer his own question and sue this guy?
The term is WhoCanISue is not trademarked (the site indicates it is but there is nothing in the US database), but there is such a thing as a common law trademark.
Common Law trademarks are much harder to prove, than registered ones, but here is the owner of a domain, saying he is selling the domain because of the success, the marketing and reputation of the owner of the domain WhoCanISue.com.
And of course if your going to screw with a site why not go after one belong to group dealing with lawyers?
The domain CanIsue.com was recently registered, on July 10, 2008, well after the ads appeared.
You could say its just another example of a company not doing defensive registrations before engaging in expensive ad campaigns, but the company who owns the domain WhoCanISue.com, did register a variation of the domain, by registering, WhoCanYouSue.com back on June 23,2008, prior to the registration of CanISue.com
I guess the owners knew the value of defensive registration but just didn’t think of some of the obvious possible combination’s.
Guess its really example of that marketing companies, don’t think like domainers.
Maybe marketing companies, should hire a domain consultant, like they hire an SEO company, to protect them against such simple, but costly mistakes.
The final question is, can you sue yourself for negligence?
And yes the domain CanYouSueYourself.com is still available as of publication.
I think you are spot on there Mike when you say companies should hire Domain Consultants!
It is something Im condsidering setting up a network of domain consultants across the globe where we can then speak with clients and help them realise the power of a domain and what we can do for when they market any of there products.
Great Post!
Regards,
Robbie
Founder
RegFeeNames.com
I’m up for that Robbie.
Good story Mike and thanks for sharing.
It also shows that companies do not think like domainers. While a traditional domainer would try to get the shortest version of a domain ‘CanISue.com’, here we see a company who goes for a longer ‘WhoCanISue.com’ even when a Shorter version was available at that time.
Is the longer one a more brandable call to action?
does length of a domain matter for companies anymore?
have a look at
‘ a little bit of what you fancy ‘ .com
regards,
Ritesh
JuBool.com
Belshass : He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone, mea culpa, mea culpa. ref the best sin the world
Could not resist it, No offence.
Great post and a BIG thanks for the info.
Nice one
The secret to understanding marketing companies, is the secret to unlocking higher domain name valuations. Those who catch the marketing companies attention will in turn prosper the domaining business.
You do not catch a marketers attention by pointing out their not seeing value in our business, as has been the case for some time now. We are not pointing fingers at you or anyone in particular, but our industry has to figure out a way to attract marketers, not repell them.
Mike,
Interesting article.
Thanks for outlining it for us.
Checking history, it was interesting to note that CanISue.com was owned for 9 years. It dropped in June.
Enom tasted it for a while and then released it.
Then, the company (ITime Marketing) that temp. reg’s domains and offer it to the owner of similar domains ran with the domain. They dropped it.
The present owner in Stuart, FLA. immediately reg’ed it and took it private 45 days later.
The present owner is foolish to admit he wants to profit from the advertising program of the other domain.
It only takes a couple bad apples to continously tarnish the industry.
This owner of CanISue.com even has a direct link on his page to WhoCanISue.com. He must not be concerned about litigation, or just ignorant of the risks.
UPDATE
Just Got this e-mail from the owner of the domain. CanISue.com
“””””After looking into the figures and factors that go into appraising a domain name, I have come up with a figure of $108,000 USD. That is the amount that I would sell the domain name for. “”””
$108,000 !!
@MHB : I am curious to know the figures and factors he is talking about.
@empedocles: nice one! I write it like this to avoid confusion theBESTSintheworld. and yes, you caught me out, I’m not traditional 😉
Belshass
He says
“”Since the rise of http://www.whocanisue.com, my site has received 108,000 hits. My figures and factors were calculated at $1.00 per hit. I’m sure this leaves room for counter arguments, discussion, and other ideas, but that’s how I came to the price. “””
you know its funny, when people write stories, how they leave out information. I read the full page (now the owner changed the site) and it did not start out with “Last week a coworker tells me that they heard an advertisment on the radio for a company….WHOCANISUE.com…. What they left out in the write up is the TRUTH. The owner started the story off by saying he contracted food poisoning, then as a joke looked up canisue.com it wasnt taken so he bought it. It wasnt until 3 months later when he heard of whocanisue.com.
STICK TO THE FACTS before you POINT YOUR FINGER
Answere: Check guy @ whocanisue@yahoo.com Thats your answere so sue me…Get over it.