Could Sedo Parking Page Put Jets.com at Risk?
While watching the New England Patriots play the New York Jets today at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, I have been catching up on some domain news from the past week, including an article about the Jets.com domain sale.
I read that Jets.com was sold by Sedo for $375,000 last week. According to the Whois information, the registrant is currently “Sedo LLC Domain Transfer Escrow Service” which is standard for domain names that are undergoing an ownership change with Sedo acting as the intermediary.
I also saw that the nameservers are currently set to Sedo’s DNS, ns1.sedoparking.com ns2.sedoparking.com, although I am not sure when those nameservers were changed. Previously, the domain name was owned by a private jet charter service, and the website was a jet airplane booking engine.
At the moment though, it appears that the domain name has advertising related to the NFL’s New York Jets (see screenshot below). There are PPC ads for the following football-related offers:
HSN.com: “New York Jets Shop for Jet’s Gear at HSN Low Prices On NFL Team Merchandise!”
NFLnewsline.com: “Patriots vs Jets Matchup Our NFL Game of the Week! Get the Latest Info & Week 2 predictions.”
Justbuytickets.com/Jets: “NY Jets Tickets Just Buy New York Jets Tickets New York Jets Tickets All Games”
I am not an attorney and have very limited legal knowledge, but I am wondering whether this usage could put the domain name at risk. If there is any risk, I am wondering who has responsibility for this risk, since the domain name is technically registered to Sedo right now pending transfer to the buyer.
This would certainly be a moot point if the NY Jets purchased this domain name, but if they didn’t, I sure hope the new owner will take steps to mitigate the risk ASAP. This is somewhat similar to the Dolphins.com UDRP (domain now owned by the NFL), although the Dolphins still aren’t using Dolphins.com. Incidentally, there was a UDRP filed for Dolphins.com and Jets.com back in 2000, but it was terminated.
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Posted in: Domain Sales, Sedo
Tags: dolphins.com, jets, jets.com, patriots
Comments (14)
Acro
September 20th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I doubt it. The current page is a side-effect of the Sedo listing; Archive.org shows that in 2008 (latest on record) the Jets.com site operated as a flight broker: http://web.archive.org/web/20080120010715/http://www.jets.com/
Elliot
September 20th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
@Acro
Correct – I linked to the Archive.org page. The question is whether an attorney for the Jets could make a claim during this period of time.
Michael Castello
September 20th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I find it odd that while in escrow Sedo would be using anything on a page to draw revenue. Even if the New York Jets had purchased the name it still is not smart policy.
Elliot
September 20th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
@ Michael
I don’t know when or who changed the DNS. When I transfer a domain name though, I know I have the option to keep the DNS the same though.
Borat
September 20th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Seedos make my domain look worst of many. The Jets are fast plane to fly to America . USA!!!
Chris
September 20th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I don´t think that someone would make a claim during the transfer as long as the new owner is not appearing in the whois. Jets is a generic term for airplanes but it is right at the same time, it appears now as a bad faith acting because of the Ads showing up, but in this case it isn´t the buyer, it is Sedo itself.
Jody
September 20th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Think Sedo charges a larger broker commission if the servers are not pointed there. Couple percent or something.
Don think so
September 20th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
1 – Jets is a generic name, the team can’t own usage in the name itself.
2 – If the Jets team was to complain their damage is only what profit was made by the advertising links during that time, probably not worth the ligation to get it.
3 – If they had issue they are required by law to notify sedo or the site owner of their dispute and give them a chance to resolve the issue without litigation.
4 – If the Jets team did not buy the name I doubt they care.
Elliot
September 20th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
@ Don think so
1) Jets is a generic term meaning flying jet airplanes, not a football team – so advertising for airplanes would not be infringing on the football teams marks.
2) The Jets could file a UDRP for bad faith registration based on its usage of infringing PPC ads
3) They registrant is bound by the uniform dispute registration procedure (UDRP). They could challenge a UDRP in the court system, but there are differences between UDRP and law
4) There was already UDRP filed for this very domain name in 2000 – along with Dolphins.com – so they clear do care. There was another UDRP filed for Dolphins.com in 2009… coincidence?
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/cases/2000/d0800-0999.html
WeBuyThe.Com
September 20th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
All names parked at sedo result in a parked page during the escrow process. Maybe boeing bought it, maybe the NY Jets bought it, we won’t know until whois updates but I don’t believe the parking page puts the new owner at risk if anything it makes sedo look like they are capitalizing on not only the sale commission but now also on the parking revenue.
Gazzip
September 21st, 2009 at 6:56 am
I think you made a very good point Elliot, its a risk not worth taking.
Looks like sedo may have took notice of your post, the nameservers have now changed to
Name Servers:
NS0.WIKIMEDIA.ORG
NS1.WIKIMEDIA.ORG
NS2.WIKIMEDIA.ORG
It does’nt resolve.
Eric Borgos
September 21st, 2009 at 10:08 am
Elliot – I totally agree with you. Based on recent WIPO cases, this type of parking could be used as evidence of bad faith in a lawsuit. Maybe SEDO is the one who would get sued and not the new owner, but many big companies are ignorant of the way domain transfers and domain parking works, and would not care about the specifics of the case. They would have their big team of lawyers sue everyone involved.
Elliot
September 21st, 2009 at 10:14 am
It just doesn’t make sense to take such a big risk with little reward.
Mounir EL ABRIDI
September 24th, 2009 at 1:46 am
If you want to sell a domain, put a sales page yourself and have a form there yourself. You can later use sedo to escrow the transaction or use escrow.com
This article highlights one of the things that make me not like sedo anymore. Are they an escrow service that helps you sell your domains or are they a domain parking company?
I have asked SEDO repeatedly for some of our domains to only display a for sale page. And yet the pages are filled 99% with ads, with just a small minuscule link saying that the domain “might” be for sale.
I then switched my domains that were parking oriented and not for sale to google domains parking , guess what I made on average 2 to 2.5 times more money than i was from sedo!!
So no wonder sedo insists on putting ads on domains, even when one wants to use them just to sell a domain. So the solution is to only use them to conduct a transaction, but not park with them.
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