Hello Margot, for the domains that are under " Pending " how long does it usually take for them to be published.
PS: I have sent a few more domains for consideration, its good to know that you personally handle all new submissions. So far my experience with BrandBucket has been excellent.
Thanks!
From submission to decision that the name will/will not be accepted runs about 1-7 days (the longer side happens when there is a big influx like there was last week after our DNJournal writeup). Once you've done all the steps needed for an accepted name (short description, paid listing fees & forwarded it), it moves on to the logo design phase.
The time it takes to have a logo designed can really vary. Our community of designers sees a pool of all** names that need designs, and they choose which ones they want to reserve. There is no first-in-first-out or anything like that. Some things that help your name get a logo faster are increasing the design award (anything over $100 goes more quickly), or you can also add $10 to your listing fee to get featured in a category -- this puts a "Featured" banner over your name, and logo designers jump on those.
We're currently working on ways to get more logos done more quickly. We currently throttle the amount that designers can do in a 12-hour period, which although it is keeping things fair for designers who may be asleep when a bunch of new good names come in, it is also reducing the number that a really engaged designer could be doing. Plans are forming...and something will change soon.
---------- Post added at 12:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:02 PM ----------
Legal risks (trademark infringements) with BB?
I guess that the majority of the listings at Brand Bucket are breaking the "Rules for sellers" there - it is simply not possible for an individual without deep pockets to clarify that a domain "does not infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party". No way.
Quote:
"Before listing a domain for sale in the domain database, it is your responsibility to perform the necessary research to ensure that your domain does not infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party."
So either selling or buying a domain poses a risk of getting sued by some trademark holder, and may it be only a slight similarity in the name. That a domain name is free is not enough.
As a seller I cannot know the business of the future buyer, yet I am obliged to check for infringements?
Oddly, BB is shifting all of the risk to the buyer, too:
"It is the Buyer's responsibility to research whether or not their desired domain is subject to trademark or intellectual property protections"
When you're doing mobile telecommunications, would you buy "merizon .com" from BB (listed right now)? Better not.
Don't get me wrong, I think BB is a great opportunity for domainers with brandable names but I dont think it is okay to shift all of the responsibility away to either seller AND buyer.
Maybe Margot can comment on this.
The language for the sellers was from our lawyers, but it RARELY applies to the types of names we list. It is primarily for keyword domains that are fairly obvious trademark intrusions, like "PreownedBMW" or "KodakGram". Fortunately for all of us the UDRP system keeps us from a flat-out lawsuit, and in the case of BrandBucket we are not squatting (i.e. making ad revenue) on a name that may be found to be an infringement, we are just listing it for sale. All that this language does is allow us to remove a name if we are asked/required to do so by a trademark holder, without having to get permission to remove it from the domain owner.
The language for the buyer is actually protecting you as a seller. It is keeping the buyer from purchasing a name, having it transferred to them, finding out that they can't trademark it (or that it conflicts), and then asking for a refund. It's pretty standard across all domain marketplaces, including places like Sedo & Afternic. They do not allow refunds at all, for any reason.
Hope that helps clarify things a bit!
---------- Post added at 12:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:14 PM ----------
It’s the Famous Marks that should be of the most concern.
As you already mentioned it’s impossible to know if a certain third party has a certain right to a certain term in a certain way in a certain location somewhere around the World, and even if they do that doesn’t mean that someone else cannot use the same term for a totally different purpose. When you search USPTO very often you see multiple trademarks for the same term, I wonder how all the others were able to get a trademark past the very first one. So a new startup might be able to get a trademark for a term that already has multiple trademarks by others as long as it’s for a totally different use.
Also there are no advertisements being displayed for the domains that can create a risk of infringement on existing trademarks, they are just represented individually by a unique logo.
What it comes down to is that a new startup has as much right to apply for a trademark on a certain term that perhaps is already being used by multitude of others as long as it is used for a different purpose than them.
IMO
PS: this is just my personal understanding of this situation and is not meant as legal or expert advice.
Wow...you explained it better than me. Thanks.
---------- Post added at 12:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 PM ----------
I just have to know tho.
What DOES a $500 logo look like??
To understand the logo design structure at BrandBucket, you have to understand the logo designer community (meaning TRUE designers, who have professional experience and actual clients who've paid them for their work, and most of which have some education in color theory and a huge typeface library in their arsenal.)
About 5-6 years ago when sites started appearing that allowed people to create "contests" for logo designs, a huge backlash happened in the designer community. Essentially, designers who actually valued their time did not want to work for free. They called this "spec work", and you can Google it and see the general negative connotation that it has. When BrandBucket was launched around this time, we had to come up with a way to get good designers to essentially work for free, and only on the hope that they will get paid for their work _someday_. To do this, we had to pay them at least $100. We absolutely did not want domain owners to foot this bill, and since the award was being given at the time of sale, it made sense to make it part of the sales price. We could have done the math to take it out of our commission, but for other requirements (affiliate programs, etc.), we needed to keep our percentage consistent across every sale.
Next, we found that some of the very good designers we were recruiting wouldn't do work for anything less than $300, some for $500. So we added the different prices, and let the domain owner decide. Most people choose $100, and that's fine with us, but there are the few that want to reach the better designers.
This goes back to my first post today (above) where I put in the "**". When a logo designer applies for our program and gets accepted, we rank them on a skill level from 1 to 5. We have very few 5's, a few more 4's, a handful of 3's, more 2's and the most 1's. Only a Level 5 designer can see and reserve awards for $500. Level 5 and Level 4 can see/reserve $400 awards, and so on.
BrandBucket only accepts professional designers with a proven portfolio of actual client work. The reason most of the logos on our site look "plain" is by design -- we are selling the name and our two most important criteria are 1) that the name be readable at a quick glance, and 2) that it not contain anything gearing it too much towards a particular industry that would potentially turn a buyer away if it didn't apply to them. With those two restrictions, it is actually very hard (words directly from my co-founder who is a designer) to get across the "feel" of a name with simply a typeface, color, and a type of placement. Our designers get that, and are actually very good at that.
For instance, an example I gave to someone the other day had to do with a name that started with an "A" and had a strong "A" sound also in the middle of the word. Although the logo looked simple, the designer actually chose a typeface with a very elegant lowercase "a", and chose to start the words with a lowercase in order to emphasize the double A, even perhaps subconsciously, to the reader.
---------- Post added at 12:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 PM ----------
Yes many who are looking to market their 4,5,6 letter pronounceables do believe the logo is a selling point. Is it reality ? That is for each person to decide if it helps or if it doesn't.
VERY good point. What we've found in over 800 domain sells is that the logo rarely makes a difference in the person's decision to buy the name. I feel that domain owners are sometimes so attached to their names -- and for good reason because they've owned them for a while and perhaps even floated ideas for building something on it -- that what comes out of the BrandBucket design factory doesn't match their vision and they get upset.
As long as buyers can see every name in one sitting, see every name clearly, and not get a headache after viewing 2 pages full of logos, we are happy and can sell domains.
---------- Post added at 12:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:46 PM ----------
I think there is also the subjective nature of one person picking names that will have some happy, some mad and some confused.
I sent 10 names over a week ago and just now at 12:40 am my time I got a reply. 2 names accepted 8 not accepted, no problem. Here is where the funny part comes, one name I submitted was Tapvo.com I like short names with Tap as that has been a popular naming keyword for some app companies. I own another 5 letter Tap related name that gets traffic every day and has made over $200 parking. So I am not upset that Brand Bucket did not accept it. The funny thing is there is a name on Brand Bucket that I actually like Mondovo.com, the description lists two points about the name one is Mondo playing off the the Italian word for world and the other part says and it ends in VO, I had to laugh.
We don't often comment on specific reasons why a name is not accepted, because if we did we'd never sleep (we get 1000+ submissions a week), but here the short of it:
In MONDOVO, the "vo" follows a vowel. In TAPVO, it follows a "p". "PV" is not a common sound combination, in any language. This makes it not only hard to say, but also hard to understand over the phone or in a crowded place.
---------- Post added at 12:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:50 PM ----------
PS: They don't like us to disclose our domains.
We are OK with you disclosing which names you have for sale (in fact we are currently working on a way that you can have a link on BrandBucket that shows only your names, so that you can link to it, pass it on, etc.).
What our seller policy prohibits is you mentioning the name and the sale price together once a domain is sold. Our buyers want to be able to control where this information is, so we/they can't go chasing around threads and asking for things to be removed for privacy.
