03|13|2009 6:04 pm EDT
Pfizer deletes over 60 .ORG domains, including Viagra.org
On the droplist for the coming days a curious find was brought to our attention – the domain viagra.org, previously owned by Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company that owns the brand is going to be deleted within the coming days. The interesting fact is that the domain actually only expires in August. Now we checked the list of deleting names and found additional names containing the Pfizer (52) and Viagra (13) brands being deleted on exactly the same date.
It seems that Pfizer may have decided not to keep protecting any of their brand names in the .ORG domain, similar to the way Ad Age suggested that companies are wary of having to protect their brand names across a lage number of new TLDs. It is obvious though that at least some of the names will be picked up after the drop, and possibly pursued again by the company’s lawyers.
Domain Name Wire had recently reported about a similar case, where the company Silicon Labs dropped their main domain name, SiliconLabs.com after it expired.
For obvious reasons we do not recommend to purchase these domains.
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9 Comments
Borat
March 13, 2009 @ 6:49 pm EDT
Maybe the folks at Pfizer have enrolled in the Verizon school of law, and they will sue anyone who attempts to monetize.
Ms Domainer
March 13, 2009 @ 10:55 pm EDT
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Wouldn’t it just be cheaper to keep the domains, or do they enjoy siccing their lawyers on slimeball cybersquatters?
(Shaking my head here.)
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wannadevelop.com
March 14, 2009 @ 4:44 am EDT
One word: idiots.
Jim
March 14, 2009 @ 5:12 am EDT
Intelligent thinking, especially deleting the domain before it expires. A clear message to ICANN, squatters, the world at large. We are not going to be roped into every new tld that comes along, instead we will just go directly after the TM violator.
Every new tld that comes along releases a press release within the first week of operation outlining how the “big” companies have registered their own name in that tld. What they don’t mention is that it usually a defensive registration trying to protect a brand name. But with endless new tlds on the horizon defending your brand through registration is going to become prohibitively expensive and your only aiding the advent of new tld’s if you do.
There is no question that these new tlds are going to lead to new intellectual property law where instead of sunrise periods we will have sunrise exclusions, where TM holders will have the right to have their TM excluded from a TLD.
Blake Worthington
March 14, 2009 @ 7:26 am EDT
Well to me it seems a company that large with a huge stack of cash they are just baiting the field so to speak. I mean they lay it out there to sucker in domainers and speed dial the lawyers etc.
Wouldn’t be suprised to see a CnD letter to any who touch these domains almost instantly etc.
Good article as I made the same observation as well.
Ron
March 14, 2009 @ 4:44 pm EDT
Four words
Not a good move
It amazes me how cheap companies are when it comes to their domain names and brand protection with domains. That being said the .org (charity), for this particular circumstance, is not as bad as loosing a valuable .com or country level name.
In regards to Jim’s comments above. ICANN can release as many TLD’s as they want, the only ones that will hold value are the ones that are the first to represent a valuable purpose online.
.NET and .BIZ are completely useless. .Org however has the purpose of representing non profit and charitable sites. With a domain such as this an owner should buy the .com and country level versions for the added protection.
john andrews
March 16, 2009 @ 8:45 pm EDT
Remembering that we don’t actually know why the names appeared as deleted, if we assume they were intentionally deleted this goes against tradition in a very conservative industry. I don’t believe it yet… and if it is confirmed that Pfizer decided to take a stand and see what happens with infringers, they are acting foolishly. The uncertainty alone will cost them more than the names; it is too early for a conservative company to fret over $8 names on the com/org/net/ TLDs.
Frank Michlick
March 16, 2009 @ 8:56 pm EDT
It is speculation, John, based on the fact that all of the names were deleted on the same day without having expired. Their registrar (CSC) did not answer my request for comment, and yet we’ve seen employees from the registrar comment on other posts on our site recently, without mentioning their employer of course.
Desmond Fox
March 17, 2009 @ 2:20 pm EDT
Interesting events:
Viagra.org ended up in SnapNames http://www.moniker.com/pub/Whois and it resolves to landing page with lots of Google sponsored ads – http://viagra.org/index_main.php.
Will Pfizer now sue Google and SnapNames for trademark infringement and monetization ?
Where have all the Viagra related domains which were listed on Snapnames gone ? https://www.snapnames.com/apps/search.jsp