Well here’s a weird one. Popular streaming video service, Crackle, which is owned by Sony, is launched a new service called Crackle Plus. There’s no doubt that they plan on making millions with the new service, yet beat on the street is that they don’t want to spend $10,000 to secure the domain name.
“For Sony-owned Crackle, however, it appears getting ownership of the domain name behind its upcoming Crackle Plus premium offering is proving a bit difficult, if only because the gigantic mega-corporation doesn’t feel like paying $10,000 to secure it from the person who already owns it, according to a report from Variety.” (Source – TheVerge)
But wait, there’s more.
Apparently the media giant has retreated from their original plans and now isn’t going to call the service Crackle Plus, in fact, they’re claiming it was never going to be a consumer-facing brand so they didn’t care. This just seems a bit fishy to me since they did try to buy it from him so clearly Sony wanted the domain.
At the same time, it’s pretty clear the owner of the domain knew Sony would want it and bought it for that reason…so if I was a betting man, I’d say Sony might be trying to investigate going the UDRP route.
“Crackleplus.com was registered by one Muhammad Abdullah in October 2017. Reached via email, Abdullah said he bought the name “to start my own entertainment website.” The site currently consists of a landing page offering to sell the domain name for “10,000 USD” and includes the Sony Crackle logo — indicating that Abdullah is fully aware that Sony has an interest in the name. Abdullah correctly noted that Sony owns a registered trademark on “Crackle” but not “Crackle Plus.” He’s also registered Twitter and Instagram accounts with the “crackleplus” name.” (Source – Variety)
In short. I think Sony probably does still want the domain, but it’s clear that they don’t want to pay $10k for it. This is just crazy since they’re likely planning on making tens of millions of dollars with their new streaming service and two-word .COMs sell for a lot more than $10k all the time. Heck, MyWebsite.com sold for $70,000 just about two weeks ago.
I think the crux of the issue is that Sony’s lawyers are annoyed with the guy who bought the domain and don’t want to buy out of principle more than anything since they see him squatting on their brand. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I personally don’t think I’d buy that domain because I’d be too nervous about getting hit with a UDRP but the current owner might be more of a risk-taker than me.
What do you think? I want to hear from you, comment and let your voice be heard!
