21 Trademarked Domain Names — Salesforce.com Registers
Direct navigation with a potential timebomb.
Online CRM and application provider Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) just made an interesting direct navigation move that could potentially land it in hot water.
Realizing that it can be difficult finding particular pages on its site and its channels on social networking sites, it registered over 20 direct navigation domain names to make it easier. For example, it registered FeatureComparisionChart.com to direct visitors to its page that compares Salesforce.com editions. That’s smart.
But then it went another level, registering domain names counting famous trademarks such as YouTube and Facebook to direct people to its social networking channels. For example, the firm registered:
YouTubeSalesforce.com
FacebookSalesforce.com
LinkedInSalesforce.com
FlickrSalesforce.com
Will those brand owners agree to Salesforce.com’s registration of domains counting their brands? Perhaps they cleared it in advance, but I’d be surprised if it doesn’t make those firm’s lawyers cringe.
Salesforce went a step further, registering YouTube domain names that include generic terms instead of Salesforce.com’s name, such as YouTubeCloudComputing.com and YouTubeSuccessStories.com.
Even more worrisome is that the domain names are registered in the name of a Salesforce.com employee rather than the firm. This tells you that the firm doesn’t have a good domain name registration policy in place.
[Hat tip to HotNameList for the link]
