E.co – When charity begins at home and justice begins next door
I’ve no doubt that on July 20, hordes of domain investors will attempt to secure a portion of the new ccTLD pie, .co
Staged as the new alternative to .com, the Colombian national TLD understandably launched an intense marketing campaign to ensure that it is not going to fall flat on its face, like other registries did in the past.
Highlighting a built-in provision that will protect the rights of trademark holders from ‘squatters‘, the .co Registry is also a proud sponsor of several domain events and conferences, including the upcoming ICANN meeting in Carthagena, Colombia.
As part of the .co marketing campaign – other than paying bloggers $80 /month for 125 x 125 square ads – the .co Registry decided to put on the chopping block one of its biggest assets: the domain e.co
Instead of waiting several years after the launch of the .co TLD, the .co Registry is actually doing something smart – at least from a marketing standpoint.
So e.co will go on auction, via Sedo and according to the web site at http://e.co the proceeds of the auction will go to a global charity of the winning bidder’s choice. The .co Registry does not shy away from stating the fact that the single letter plus the extension form the word “eco” – a term popular with today’s green-focused economy, the environment and ecology in general.
Sounds like an angelic world, with charities and good intentions.
However, at least 1,300 trademarks that contain the word “eco” exist in the USPTO database, all of which would most likely object to seeing their mark be used as a global URL. Several hundred of these trademarks are indeed of ecological focus which would bring them directly interested in both obtaining and objecting this unique match of URL/trademark.
If that weren’t big enough of a reason to be skeptical about the upcoming auction of e.co consider that there is also an active and rather large initiative about the gTLD .eco in the works.
Supported by no other than former US vice president and Nobel Peace prize winner, Al Gore, the Dot Eco initiative is the single largest force behind the launch of this generic TLD; promoting green energy, alternative power sources, the environment and a global policy against pollution.
A few questions arise:
- Is the .co Registry wrapping up the sellout of e.co as a “charity event” in order to avoid direct repercussions from the “eco” trademark holders?
- How is this going to affect the ICANN application for .eco by the Dot Eco initiative, especially since the Colombian TLD is the shortest possible form of the applied gTLD?
- Is there already an agreement between the .co Registry and Dot Eco and the auction is simply a trick to attract more attention to the launch a national TLD which will face several critical issues in the future?
One thing is certain: domain holders are witnessing their revenue drop constantly, all while large brokerage and PPC companies announce record profit and sales. As the Registries increase their profits by raising prices for the most commonly used TLDs, the cost of owning and monetizing a large number of domains is increasing.
Perhaps, it’s time for justice to begin at home instead of next door.
Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/acroplex
