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Naming ain't easy.
Claude Labbe (and quite a few other folks) alerted me to this story: Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Corp, a small Ohio-based manufacturer that employs just 17 people, claims its website became a victim of YouTube's success after being engulfed by 68 million hits in August.68 Million hits. And I would bet that of those people that accidentally went to the wrong site - exactly none of them thought "Wow - this is such a coincidence! Even though I was looking for sophomoric videos I could really use some industrial tubing right now. Where can I send my money?" UTube is suing YouTube to cover the costs of the misdirected traffic. This should be an interesting case to follow. While YouTube could get some positive press from helping UTube, I wonder if UTube could've prevented the entire debacle by using forethought. When picking your domain name we advise
trying to lock up rights to sound-alike and close misspellings. When using a coined name such as Utube there are a few names that are so similar that you must verbally spell-out your name like this: Utube... that's "U" as in the letter U, and then t, u, b, and e. That's a whole lot of syllables to explain it. Especially when "You Tube" is the more intuitive and doesn't need the extended spelling lesson.
Grabbing domains such as YouTube, UToob, and YouToob might've helped. (Granted, you can't really grab every sound-alike or misspelling... there are potentially thousands of them.) Our vote? YouTube should do the good-neighbor thing (either before or after they get the lawsuit dismissed) and pay for UTube's website costs and a potential rebranding initiative. Tate Linden Principal Consultant Stokefire Consulting Group 703-778-9925 |
