domain adword.com sold at sedo this week for 8K- I have the .info

[buckshotdots]

Alright, adword.com sold at sedo this week for 8K. I own the .info and was waiting for whois to change to ask if they were interested in mine. Low and behold a few days after the sale I get an offer. Same person or someone thinking there is value in mine as the .com sold for a nice amount??? Anyways...

Anyone want to appraise adword dot info?

thanks and rep will be added, Gary.

 

[sashas]

I don't see it higher than mid xxx. 8k is not a terribly huge sum for a .com, and the difference in .info and .com as extensions is pretty large (but isn't that between .com and ALL other extensions

Perhaps if you have a motivated buyer, you might get high xxx to even low x,xxx. But if someone is going purely by the .com sale, 3-4xx is what I believe would be it..

 

[npcomplete]

Wow. This is actually fascinating. Let me explain why:

Adwords is a registered TM of Google. Here is the info and a link to the tarr status page for adwords: (Yes I know you have adword, singular)

reg date: December 16, 2003
drawing code: (1) TYPED DRAWING

tarr status:
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=78132568

Google has litigated in the past, and my first thought was that Google either didn't know about the sale, or didn't care, or bought the mark. I couldn't believe that they didn't know... so let's look at the latest whois for adwords:

Registrant:
Google Inc.
(DOM-290716)
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View
CA
94043
US

Updated Date: 16-nov-2007
Creation Date: 26-jul-1999
Expiration Date: 26-jul-2008

Now let's look at Adword.com (singular, relates to your domain):

Registrant:
Lulu.com
(DOM-1714990)
860 Aviation Pkwy Ste 300 Morrisville
NC
27560 US

Updated Date: 17-nov-2007
Creation Date: 01-apr-2000
Expiration Date: 01-apr-2010


If the owner had it since 2000, then the domain predates the registered mark. Furthermore, if you look at the TM record, you see a date of first use as the year 2000. So the domain might predate the claim of first use. That would make a UDRP or suit *extremely* difficult.

The new owner is lulu.com. This will be interesting to see how it proceeds. At this point adword.com is not resolving.

Now, given all of that, the question then becomes whether Google would want to litigate or just buy a domain registered after the TM registration date. If you approach them with an offer of sale, then that alone is an issue of bad faith which can be used in court against you.

One of the legal issues here is the difference between adword and adwords, where the legal test is "Likelihood of Confusion". This one is obvious since the two terms are "confusingly similar" in the mind of a general person interested in using the phrase. Furthermore, the question arises as to whether the use of the mark Adwords on your page falls under the general category of "nominative use" of a mark, or is it infringing.

Without the infringment cloud I would say about $1000-$2000, since this term is in heavy use in our industry. With the cloud hanging over it, I would be *very* careful about this.

Good luck,
Marc

 

[sashas]

Hmm..
I'd thought of the TM too, but I also believe AdSense to be under the TM, and Ad Words to be a generic term used in the industry before Google. But Marc's research shows otherwise.

Lulu.com is obviously a big buyer. And they can probably go around the TM (as Marc shows it was regged before Google came about) and even negotiate directly with Google.

Your .info cannot obviously be regged in 2000, before Google (there was no .info then, lol), so the TM situation would apply to your name.

Keeping this in mind, I would be very wary and be happy to get anything for the name. Very few resellers will touch such a name. It might be Lulu.com making an offer, but I doubt they'll want to meddle with a TM issue name. It might even be Google trying to buy the name from you (they have done so in the past. Google is usually gracious enough to buy the name for reg fee than dragging the owner to court).

Keep us updated how this sale progresses. It would be interesting to see how things develop..

 

[Porte]

I think the term Adword is TMed. So the offer you might be receiving is certainly an end-user offer or someone who will know how to deal with TM name. A $XXX offer is most likely. :tu:

Let us know how this transaction goes...

 

[buckshotdots]

I will keep this thread updated. Myself and the previous owner have had no TM issues yet. I am not greedy so this sale should go thru.

Thanks to all, Gary.