The Hot Iron

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Sports Teams and Domain Names

To visit the Web sites of the 4 major sports teams in Boston, one would enter the following into their browser’s address bar – redsox.com, patriots.com, celtics.com and bruins.com. If you click on those links, you will see that 3 of them will get you to where you want to go, and one goes to a domain name parking page.

Boston’s hockey team is not the only one that doesn’t own the basic name of their team. This story details the domain names teams in the 4 major sports leagues – baseball, football, hockey and basketball and who owns what. The Bruins are in good company with the other teams in the NHL in not owning the team name.

When you look at the name of teams, it is not surprising that someone else owns such generic terms as lions, rams, penguins and blues. Granted many of these pages are domain name parking pages with ads. And providing they are not attempting to violate the trademark of a sports team, why should their current owners not own them?

A recent case highlighted this with regards to the ownership of angels.com, held by someone in South Korea. I had reported on it previously but it is worth mentioning again here, and you can read the full text of the case here. Even though the owner offered to sell the domain name to MLB and the Los Angeles Angels for US$300,000.00, the case came down to the fact that the owner was not squatting on the name, leveraging the brand of the baseball team. If you look at the site at angels.com, it is a mere postcard with text in Korean (if anyone out there reads Korean, please let me know what it says).

Those teams that do not own just the name as their domain name own names with the city/state and the team name. If someone else bought chicagobears.com, the Monsters of the Midway certainly would have a claim to it. The Bears and the other teams have a recognizable domain name that will lead someone to their Web site from the address bar entry of the team name, and most certainly from a Web search. And not owning bears.com was not the reason they did not win the Super Bowl.

As a Boston sports fan, it is not surprising that the Bruins don’t own bruins.com, an online reflection of their performance over the last quarter century, but I digress.

---

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

8 Random Things About Mike Maddaloni

I got tagged by David Dalka on a topic that has been going around the blog world – to post 8 random things about myself. So here goes:

1. I used to collect business cards. I passed along most of them to other collectors, but I still have cards from Bill Gates and Steve Case.

2. I was once in the studio watching a live broadcast of NFL Sunday Countdown at the ESPN Studios in Bristol, CT.

3. I was the general manager of my college radio station, WNEK-FM, which is why I still have records.

4. I used to own a Penny-Farthing bicycle – I won it in a raffle. As I could never ride the thing, I sold it to a bike shop that had the old-style English cycle as its logo.

5. I am 100% Italian-American.

6. I have been a New England Patriots season ticket holder since 1993.

7. I still own the TRS-80 Model 4 computer I owned in high school.

8. I have been to 12 countries.

Now to return the favor, I am tagging the following 8 people:

Mark Ashley
Mike Carruth
Justin Chen
Jason Jacobsohn
Clay Parker Jones
Matt Maldre
Drew Myler
Wendy Piersall

Of course there is no obligation to post, but it's more for fun and to share a little about ourselves. And so it continues.

---

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Serph to Help Manage Your Online Identity

Wouldn’t it be nice to find out what people are saying about you right now? Or your business or competitors? Using Serph along with other services like Google Alerts can help you keep track of who is saying what and where.

I was recently clued into Serph by Justin at Menuism. You can create a free account to manage your searches, or simply enter a search query and see what is being mentioned about that search phrase on blogs and social bookmark sites. You can also get an RSS feed of that search phrase, and Serph will deliver any new entries to your feed reader as they are found.

Like any of these services, they won’t find everything about every phrase. If you are a new business or new to publishing online, you may not get results right away. As I have been publishing The Hot Iron and promoting Dunkirk Systems for a while, I get frequent hits of their mentions in blogs and on other Web sites.

This post alone should send me alerts, as well as to Justin.

---

Men’s Oasis in the Loop

With the day-to-day grind of life and business, it’s good to take a break, even if for just a few hours. Sometimes it’s reading a book in my secret location or a walk along Lake Michigan. Every couple of weeks though, it is to relax and get cleaned up in the process, and for that I take a stroll over to The 316 Club.

The 316 Club, located next to the Board of Trade Building in Chicago, is a men’s spa, “designed to provide an oasis with premium grooming services.” You can get haircut – or in my case a head shave – face shave, face, hand or foot treatment – even waxing. The environment is done well with dark wood and stone, a lounge with a fireplace, pool table and a full bar. They have WiFi, but the last thing I want to do is bring my notebook and do work there!

If you do get a shave, it is a real straight-razor shave by Carmelo, a second-generation Italian-American barber. This is the extreme opposite of using a Bic disposable razor with Barbasol shaving cream! He uses The Art of Shaving products, which I personally have used for several years, which gives me the best shave I have ever had. If you have never had a straight-razor shave, I highly recommend you try it.

As it is called The 316 “Club,” it is a membership club. They offer 2 types of memberships both including unlimited use of one of their package of services – all including a shoe shine – and discounts on other services or products. They also host events throughout the year especially for members.

You don’t have to join to visit the Club, but after a couple of visits you probably will. Do the math for what you are paying now and it will make sense... add in the extras of the experience and it will more than pay for itself. Needless to say I am a member!

---

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Confusing New Law on Domain Names in New York State

A new law signed on August 1 in New York State will surely lead to much confusion, and much profiting by the attorneys who have to spend their clients’ money to understand and see if this law holds up.

Note that I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on YouTube. Please read the text of the law on the State Of New York’s Web site and search on bill S3814-B. More information is available from the Web site of New York State Senator Betty Little who sponsored the legislation, and the news report the bill is now law.

As I have talked about before, there is a process for registering and disputing the ownership of domain names. There is cybersquatting, where a person registers a domain name of a person, business or entity with the intent to profit from it. Then there are people who buy domain names comprised of generic terms that are descriptive of a product or service, and could apply to an entire industry segment. As a domain name has value and if a registrant decides to sell it, who is to say they cannot?

The New York law appears to offer an avenue around the ICANN process for disputing domain name ownership. This also imposes cash penalties of $1,000.00 a day! But where the law is confusing is in its opening language:

“Relates to cyber piracy protections and the unlawful registration of domain names; prohibits the registration of a domain name that consists of the name of another living person, or a name substantially and confusingly similar thereto, without that person's consent, with the specific intent to profit from such name by selling the domain name for financial gain to that person or any third party; provides for injunctive relief and other civil remedies.”

What defines intent to profit? What if I hold a domain name and do not sell it, or develop a Web site around it or simply park it – who is to determine intent?

Here’s a potential example – say I buy every possible domain name around my name, including misspellings. I may decide to sell some of them, perhaps some of the less desirable top-level domains like .ws. If there is another person with the same name as myself, can they then sue me under this law? And can they sue for the .com name and not the .ws I want to sell? Yes, there are other people out there named Mike Maddaloni, and I am sure Betty Little as well.

It is also murky as to jurisdiction of this law. What if the registrant and domain name registrar are not based in New York? Needless to say, I have warned my clients and colleagues in New York State about the potential issues with this law.

Again, I am not a lawyer, and with all legal matters you should consult one. If you don’t have one – get one. Especially if you are worried about New Yorkers suing you within a few months.

---

Silicon Prairie Social on September 20

Tim Courtney has emailed me and invited myself and all of you to attend the very first Silicon Prairie Social, to be held on Thursday, September 20 at Mullen’s Bar and Grill in Lisle, IL. This is being billed as a suburban tech networking event, as Lisle is about 30 minutes west of Chicago. That is, 30 minutes without the occasional traffic tie-ups on the Chicagoland roads.

And to answer your next question, yes, there will be free drinks. They have an impressive list of sponsors on their Web site already. I am glad to hear about and share information on such events. At events in Chicago proper, many people come in from the ‘burbs to attend, and I hope some folks from the city venture west. You may want to head out earlier and do some shopping, as the tax is less outside of the city!

---

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Now running ExpressionEngine 1.6

The Hot Iron is now running the latest release of ExpressionEngine, 1.6. The upgrade was straightforward a model for Web-based packaged applications.

Of course thorough testing continues, and please let me know if you find anything out of the ordinary, or different from what you would expect from this little blog.

And no, I don't run WordPress. Nothing against the world's most widely used blog engine, but I came upon EE and liked it a lot!

---

Friday, August 10, 2007

Business Network Chicago

I just got off the phone with David Carman, and he told me the Breakfast Network Club is now Business Network Chicago, and has relaunched its Web site. The name change is a good one, especially as they don’t hold too many morning meetings anymore, and the new name is better focused on their goals and intent.

BNC has many special interest groups, including venture capital, healthcare and IT, which focus on these particular industries, as well as larger networking events. Their newsletter is a good source for job positions and leads. I have made many great contacts through the BNC, and have been proud to sponsor their meeting nametags.

BNC is kicking off its new branding and the fall with Fall n-Counter, to be held on Wednesday, September 19 at the W Chicago City Center hotel on Adams in the Loop. More information and registration is available on their Web site. This will surely bring out a large attendance at such a great venue.

Good luck to David, the president of the BNC, and all of its SIG chairs on the rebranding and ongoing work to bring the Chicago business community together.

---

Next likemind on Friday August 17

The next likemind will be next Friday, August 17 in dozens of cities around the world. In Chicago, it will be back at Intelligentsia Coffee,, 53 E. Randolph, at the corner of Wabash.

What is likemind? I call it a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines. For my friends and readers in Boston, they are looking for someone to organize it, which just means paying for coffee and getting reimbursed, and being somewhat awake at that hour.

---

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Who Should Own a Domain Name?

One of the biggest challenges with establishing an Internet presence isn’t technical - it is selecting a domain name or names. Many times people have an idea on a potential name only to find it is taken. Sure, many good names are taken, but there are plenty available, and this is where I have enjoyed working with clients to select a name. In many cases, we may select a “generic” domain name, one that is not a trademark but common words that describe their products or services. An example is childproofhome.com for my client Foresight Childproofing, Inc. which is also easier to spell and remember.

There is a large aftermarket for domain names – names that have already been registered by someone else and are for sale. Some people buy names as an investment, others have names they are no longer using. We’re not talking about trademarks of products or companies, but generic names or names of people. If such a domain name is desired by someone else, they may engage with the current owner and buy it, and the cost is usually larger than the “core” cost of registering a domain name, and some names go from the hundreds to tens of thousands.

Domain names are registered on a first-come-first-serve basis. Why does the Boston Globe own boston.com? Because they were the first to register it. Though the name pertains to the newspaper in the capital city of Massachusetts, there are other cities and towns named Boston and some people have Boston as a last name. And surely there are businesses that have Boston in their title. As the Globe got it first, it is theirs. Where others may wish to have it, this is how the system was established, and for lack of a different or better system, it works.

If someone buys a domain name that is a trademarked name or a name that someone else claims should be theirs, there is a legal process that is followed through ICANN, which is the international body that oversees many aspects of the Internet, including domain names. Many people and businesses have won claims to domain names from others. Singer Madonna got madonna.com through an appeal, however the Los Angeles Angels baseball team did not get angels.com – it was determined that its South Korean owner had proper claim to the name. There is currently a case between two people named Keith Urban, one is the country music singer and the other is not as famous, but owns keithurban.com.

So who should own a domain name? It is a question that is philosophical as much as it is legal. I am presenting this information as it is something being reported more in the mainstream press, with recent articles in USA Today and the Boston Globe. And there is a law recently passed that may have more impact if its deficiencies are not glossed over by the courts. More to come.

---