Last week, a blog post hit Techmeme detailing how Dell had screwed up by not securing Adamo.com for its ultra-thin notebook, which CrunchGear’s John Biggs spotted at SXSW a day before its official release on March 17.
It’s not like they tried: the former owner of the domain name, Tucows subsidiary YummyNames, has no record of ever even being approached for a sale or lease of the internet address. Dell claims they had a broker contact the firm anonymously, who was quickly convinced the price would be too high (yet YummyNames leases domains from $750 per month).
The computer manufacterer instead went with AdamoByDell.com but belatedly realized it wouldn’t be such a terrible idea to own or at least use Adamo.com too. Now they’ve finally made a move and acquired it outright for an undisclosed sum which was probably much higher than what they’d have paid a couple of weeks ago, according to Domain Name Wire. Both domain names now redirect to the product website.
As DNW points out, Apple also purchased the iPhone.com domain name after launching the product, and there are many more historic examples of this. No doubt, companies will keep making mistakes like this in the future as well.
Just dreaming that I should had that domain purchased and would have got a big money from dell for selling it to them. zzzz..
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
Now dream about learning to write better in english.
Now learn to capitalize English.
Now learn to stop writing sentence fragments.
There is something intrinsically wrong with selling domain names. I mean this is the level of unoriginality and pure worthlessness that can be achieved by only a handful of people.
Someone smart once said a person’s worth can be judged by the legacy they leave behind. They only legacy YummyNames founder will leave behind is the reminder that to some people ethics don’t mean jack when it comes to money.
How many people in the world do you think will give a damn once these sleazeballs are gone? I say under 3, tops.
So true Moral, I mean who would actually be in favor for creating an actual market for a product or service. Or *gasp* investing money in something and hoping to resell it for more money later – such a horrible, outdated concept.
I feel the same way about those horrible real estate developers who buy land and do nothing with it.
BASTARDS!
Umm.. If they have a trademark on that name, they can seize that domain name pretty easy.
Might me in their best interest, better goodwill, and less legal costs to just buy it off the owner.
not true, if the domain was registered before the trademark you don’t have a right to seize it.
thats not true either. i had a domain name that got taken even though i registered it before the complainant had filed their trademark
so why did it get taken?
Actually it is true. You should have consulted a lawyer.
You might still be able to get your domain back if you can prove that the domain was registered before their trademark.
One cannot request seize on a domain unless their trademark was registered through commerce prior to the registration of the domain by its current owner.
If it causes confusion in the marketplace, it can be argued as trademark infringement. If not, companies can argue that it causes dilution, especially when the domain is owned by a squatter. I’m not sure what kind of precedents exist for dilution cases, but it has nothing to do with when the domain name was registered, but when the name was used in commerce.
Look at the Umbro case (Virginia).
domain was owned by a sleuth not a squatter.
LandrushLocator.com – plot yourself
Railroaded, it happened in the 1800’s, people are being railroaded for domains now in the 2000’s
Thought they are not being killed for it, that is at least progress.
Take a look at avg.com, means average right? At least for 50 years.
This domain was lost via UDRP at WIPO.
http://www.wipo...d2006-1381.html
The domain can be stolen no matter how long you owned it, or when the TM was registered and it doesn’t have to be a registered trademark. Just something that the panelist can “believe” to railroad your domain for the $1,200 the complainer just paid for.
It is ALWAYS about the money.
Domain Name: AVG.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Creation Date: 02-nov-1994
If it is not about the money, can I get a logo on your homepage for free? or about $100 a month?
Even generic domains are legally snatched.
If you park the domain, you should not use keywords that are similar to a trademarked product. An example is, if you own Window.com, don’t use keywords related to the Windows computers/software.
Same if you develop it, stay unrelated as much as you can.
Can u say fake macbook pro….. yea right.
so stupid…
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No thank you.
That wipo case for avg.com above is a bad example as they lost the case and the domain because they were using it in a confusing manner that tricked people looking for avg products and sent them to competitor products. An obvious case of a bad faith registration. Adamo, as used by tucows, was part of their last names portfolio, said as much on the website, and had no ads. Dell had no legal rights whatsoever and had they tried to take it away legally could have been counter-sued for reverse domain hijacking. Dell knew that and that is why they purchased it.
@Brian and the others discussing trademark issues:
I’m the person who brokered this deal on behalf of Tucows. I am the General Manager of YummyNames (http://www.yummynames.com), and its my mission to help marketers appreciate the value of a good domain name. Not an easy job, at times! ;+)
For the record, there are NO trademark issues related to this domain and deal. “Adamo” is a very common surname, and the Adamo.com domain name has been in use since 1996 as part of a unique service that allows multiple people with the same last name to get an email and Web address that corresponds with their personal name. Head on over to http://www.hover.com and click on “Get Personalized Email” to try it out.
Just because Dell happened to choose a popular surname as the name of their new product did not, and does not, legally entitle them to lay claim to this particular domain name. Thankfully, Dell was smart enough to realize this, which is why they ultimately ended up purchasing the domain name from us versus filing a UDRP complaint or lawsuit they would almost certainly lose.
Dell is to be commended for recognizing the value of a good domain name, even if the process to get to that point wasn’t as seamless as it could have been.
Tucows is a public traded company with the capital resources to fend off any legal challenge.
Whereas, had it been owned by a domainer with limited resources, the outcome might had been different.
Congratulations on the sale.
sure Dell could pwn some random domainer but the bad press they would get in the mean time for attempting to snatch a common surname would be off the charts. It would be much easier in any case, regardless of the original owner, to simply purchase it.
guess it sold for 1million+? any guessers out there? name is definitely gonna need some getting used too. first bebo, then kumo, now adamo. something better than an “apple” would have made more sense. how about “cherry.”
BuyLocator.com – everythings forsale
As far as I know, domain names cannot be “seized” in any way, regardless of the company involved. It would be a long legal fight that would be avoided more cheaply by just buying it, as Dell did.
@Gadget Sleuth… “As far as I know…”, you don’t know! Domains CAN be seized very easily. That is what the Uniform Dispute Resolution is all about. You must prove the following:
1. The domain name can be reasonably mistaken for a registered trademark that you own (it doesn’t matter when it was registered)
2. The domain owner has no legitimate use of the domain name.
3. The domain owner is acting in bad faith (profiting from a domain by placing PPC ads related to the trademark is considered bad faith)
That’s it! Just pay a $1200 arbitration fee and the domain is yours in about a month.
Okay, whoever gets sex.com first, wins.
Wow, what a dumb mistake, that undoubtedly cost them lots more money than if they bought the domain before product launch.
Yummy Names did nothing wrong. Dell made the right call, though a late one that cost it extra $$. Squatting is one thing (purposely sitting on a trademark-related domain, AFTER it’s been trademarked). Purchasing domains for personal or speculative use is just like buying real estate. You can whine all you want that someone got there before you, but look at any piece of land anywhere, and someone owns it. Setting up shop in ‘clicksville’ (online) is the digital version of setting up shop on ‘brick and mortar’ Main Street. Both will cost you money. But at least online, if you’re smart, you have a shot at getting a nice piece of property for a few bucks a year.
They do it on purpose. They don’t want to spoil the surprise. You think Apple would have iPhone.com before the announcement?
It’s not uncommon for large corporations to work with attorney offices or anonymous brokers to register or purchase domain names without spoiling any surprises.
I think beside have to buy the domain from them and cost around $750 I advice them to have there own.Keywords.as there website name,they can do this isnt it?
Remember when CitiBank Merged with Travelers and announced their new name was going to be CitiGroup? Michael Eisner’s assistant was pretty savvy for the time. She registered citigroup.com By the end of the same week she was $250K richer.
Why do companies purchase the name after launching the product? All that is going to do is increase the price for the domain name.
maybe they don’t want people to know they’re launching a new product? Imagine what would happen if someone found out Apple bought "iPhone.com" a few weeks before it was announced
In 15 minutes it will be March 29 CST, and at this time the domain record information still points to Tucows – http://domainre...query=Adamo.com. I have seen domain record changes propagate in minutes.
Better late than never… good job
Bryce, people already knew it was being called iPhone before it was announced.
I’ll happily sell my domain, http://www.lenovosucks.com at a firesale price. Somebody please buy it from me please? I beg you. The hosting fees alone are killing me. It is sucking gigiwatts of bandwith. Have mercy on my soul. Just kidding, but it is for sale cheap.
An undisclosed amount? Come on, someone has to know what was paid for it.
Try the best home page
Whats going on with the lame ass track pad? Why do laptop companies continually skimp on the track pad which IMO is twice as important as the hardware inside the laptop.
I think that Apple’s mistake had more to do with not disclosing anything about the product before the product launched…
Scratch that last one. Didn’t read it correctly. My mistake…
Adamo.com, sounds like a cool domain. I will check it out.
Mohammad Afaq
Free Website Traffic
HP’s ONE multivendor alliance program is a logical step in adding more data center value for their existing ProCurve customers. Customers, however, must beware as “the devil is in the details” and even more so in “the operational complexity” that can result from trying to take advantage of infrastructure and equipment consolidation without having the supporting IP service integration properly designed and innovated.
Do you think http://www.iamvalue.com which is very generic can be taken away by a company?
Dell is investing a lot of time and capital to maximize the netbook market. They are involved in a couple lawsuits over them as well. One part about netbooks I’m still not 100% confident about is regarding the security side, but that’s why I consult sites like This one.
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“It will challenge us and move us into the future now,” says Valentino. The site offers human deductive reasoning and inference. “Imagine a machine with personality that’s proactive,sounds like efficiency to me.” states The Face Of Web 3.0(Maurice Valentino).
Valentino also went on to explain in more detail what to expect from MYvosi LLC and Web 3.0.”MYvosi Web 3.0 is the successful marriage of artificial intelligence and the web. In addition we want to be efficient not only from an economical and an environmental perspective but also from an individual and technological perspective. Web 1.0 was for all to read, Web 2.0 was for all write and Web 3.0 is and will be for all to innovate.” personalize your future, live out your potential. Myvosi web 3.0 allows you to search by sentences not eliminating the keyword based search but expanding on it. You can type in sentences and in turn it would return relevant results and suggest other content related to your search terms. You can ask your browser questions such as “where can i go for lunch” and it will provide you, based on your likes & dislikes something suitable (human deductive Reasoning).”Many fear that this detailed information about them will be exposed, but it is the exact opposite,” says Valentino. Your likes and dislike /personal information are not publicized they are on an encrypted network using the same encryption’s as the one used by the major banks in the world(ex. the TLS and the high 128 bit encryption). This graduates the common concept of the current web, typing in the same information and getting the same information. What’s now offered is a unique individual experience on the web tailored to fit you personality. Myvosi Web 3.0 consist partially of “mashup” applications. An example would be looking up restaurants and have it tie in to another application(GPS) giving you place and directions. Myvosi Web 3.0 has the most intelligent software agent at the click of a button. You can share data files securely and efficiently without the threat of viral and other harmful applications (worms,Trojan horses,malware,etc) infecting your computer.A quote from Thomas Chille” For manifesting a web 3.0, we need a web 3.0. We need a real evolutionary shift in the perception of the web by the end users. Much like the paradigm shift in involving the user generated content for web 2.0.” Its purpose is to educate, create, and innovate the end User’s experience of the Web’s resources. It is the web’s Advanced Version Of the 3 dimensional giant”Second Life,”but Extremely user efficient. The applauding moment was simply this stated by The Face Of Web 3.0 “Most importantly Web 3.0 Is all of you. It isn’t the dominating player with the most Bank. It is about you (the user). We as individuals craft web 3.0. we all have a major role in its implementation” says Valentino. This is just an overview what Myvosi Web 3.0 offers. The detailed version would require a 1,000 paged text book and far superceeds what was said today. Myvosi Web 3.0 launch date is in the summer (July) of 2010.
Special Acknowledgments:
*Barack Obama in his spirited aura of change
*Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau who created the World Wide Web at CERN
*James Hendler An artificial Intelligence Researcher
*Nigel Richard Shadbolt founder of the Web Science Research Initiative
*Ora Lassila a Finnish computer scientist
*Computer Science University of Southampton
*Artificial intelligence department @ University of Edinburgh
*Eric Schmidt CEO Of Google
*Doug Lenat Computer Scientist Ceo of Cycorp
*Kevin Kelly Great Mind
If I left anyone out you are not forgotten, but for the sake of time, many more I give thanks to. Thank you all for your research , your time invested in making us better and more efficient economically and environmentally, America and the World thanks you.
A few pioneers of Green Energy who deserve recognition
*Scott mcnealy co founder of sun micro systems say that technology of the Internet is the most planetary efficient way of conducting business
*John Doer partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers
says that Germany is the largest buyer of solar cells around the world
“These are point that should be noticed and implemented in our economic and environmental strategy and conducive to like such recovery” Says Valentino
*MIT chemist Daniel Nocera
*Thomas Hinderling innovator who wants to build solar island to make us more efficient.
*Texas oilmen like T. Boone Pickens started pushing alternative energy
*Steven Chu head the Department of Energy
just to name a few.
“These are a few of the people who have inspired me to offer the Next generation ready platform. I look at their stories and their desire to innovate and to make better. These are things and mindsets I was conceived in. These Great minds gave me the foundation to start myvosi and change the future. So I personally feel they deserve a great deal of recognition” Says The Face Of Web 3.0 Maurice Valentino
Interesting! It’s been more than three weeks and teh domain record for Adamo.com http://domainre...query=adamo.com still shows Twcows as the owners. I wonder, how long does it take for Dell to update their records?