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Generic Domains owned by Large Corporations
August 30th, 2007 by 
Jay Westerdal
Large Corporations generally don’t own generic domain names. They have their brands and their product names but they don’t own the category name. This is a short list of the corporations that own Single word domain names. We make an exception for two word category names that describe things very specifically, like Cream Cheese or Student Loan. If a company wants to sell Toothpaste they should own Toothpaste.com. They will own that domain forever and will be linked to that category and keyword in search engines and in public perception so strongly it almost gives them an unfair advantage. CNET has used this secret to become a huge company, they now dominate online with sites like News.com and Search.com. Some of CNET’s products may be 2nd or third class but that generic domain names gives them a lot of creditability. Search.com is crap, but people still type it in and use it. Weather.com is used so much because of its name and how easy it is to remember. It may not be the best weather service but it is the most used.
We are only listing Huge corporations, for example PeanutButter.com is on the list but Jelly.com is not. Some small companies in the future will be bought for one thing. Not there products or clients but their domain name. The small specialty foods company that owns Jelly.com will eventually be owned by a multiple national and at that point it will make the list. The way Microsoft got Live.com was because they bought the entire company, all they wanted was the domain. If you want something, just type dotcom on the end of it. Have you counted how many times a day you hear dotcom. This morning on the way to work I counted 7 of them in 20 minutes. I saw 4 of them driving past things. You don’t even need to market a great generic domain name, people just type them in because dotcom is advertised so strongly.
American Express - Open.com
AOL - When.com, Games.com, Love.com
Answers Corp. - Answers.com, Reference.com, Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com
Bank Of America - Loans.com
Barnes and Noble - Books.com
Bayer - Aspirin.com
Bass Pro Shops - Hunting.com
Brown Shoe Company - Shoes.com
Burlington Coat Factory - Coat.com
Calvin Klein - Bras.com and Underwear.com
Citibank - Student Loan.com
CNET -
Kids.com, Help.com, Computers.com, Download.com, Online.com, TV.com, Upload.com, News.com, Search.com, com.com, Builder.com, Gaming.com, Shopper.com, Marketplace.com, Updates.com, Store.com, Buying.com, Chat.com, Welcome.com, Browser.com, Shareware.com, Freeware.com, Auctions.com, Labs.com, Community.com, Silicon.com, Radio.com
CNN - Money.com
Old Country Buffet - Buffet.com
Diago - Malts.com, Rum.com, Scotch.com
Disney - Movies.com, Video.com, 101.com, Go.com, Family.com
Ebay (aka PayPal) - X.com
Fixodent - Dentures.com
1-800-flowers - Flowers.com
Food Network - Food.com
Google - Hello.com
Honda - Motorcycles.com
JC Penny - Gift.com
Johnson and Johnson - Baby.com
Kay Jewelers - Gold.com
Kraft - Cream Cheese.com
Marchex - Motherboard.com
MasterCard - Priceless.com
Merriam Webster - Word.com
Microsoft - Live.com, Surface.com, Start.com, TV.net, Investor.com
National Geographic - Documentary.com
Nissan - Z.com
Monster - Jobs.com
National Pen Company - Pens.com
Nestle - Meals.com
Office Depot - Office Supplies.com
PetSmart - Pets.com
Procter and Gamble - Toothpaste.com
QWest - Q.com, Fast Lane.com, Fog Light.com
Ralph Lauren - Polo.com, Rugby.com
Ragu - Sauce.com
R.H. Donnelley - Business.com, Work.com
Rocky Mountain Bicycles - Bikes.com
Roto Rooter - Plumber.com
Sports Endeavors - Soccer.com, Lacrosse.com
Sylvan Learning - Educate.com, Hop.com, Ivy.com
The History Channel - History.com
The Map and Globe Store - World Maps.com
The Weather Channel - Weather.com
The Wedding Channel - Weddings.com
Travelocity - Vacations.com
Unilever (Products include: Knorr, Slim Fast, Vasaline) - Soup.com, Peanut Butter.com
Yahoo - Contests.com, Broadcast.com
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Posted in Great Generic |
August 30th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Check out soup.com
August 31st, 2007 at 5:27 am
PayPal - x.com
August 31st, 2007 at 7:46 am
AOL - Games.com
Microsoft - Start.com
1-800-flowers - Flowers.com
August 31st, 2007 at 7:58 am
R.H. Donnelley - Business.com, Work.com
Disney - Video.com, 101.com, Go.com
CNET - Help.com, Online.com
Sports Endeavors - Soccer.com, Lacrosse.com
August 31st, 2007 at 8:01 am
Nissan - Z.com (although they don’t own Nissan.com)
August 31st, 2007 at 8:06 am
another Disney domain - Family.com
another CNET domain - Kids.com
(okay, i could do this all day.. back to work!)
UPDATE BY JAY: I added all the domains from the comments above. Thanks for filling in gaps.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:07 am
On a related note, I have a list of over 200 national brands that are using non-brand domain names in national advertising campaigns.
UPDATE BY JAY: I see dozens of domains in commercials, thanks for the link. Great to have a place that is collecting them. I am sure your list will be very long because creative domain names are all that is left. It would be nice to get a screen shot or video next to each one.
I think the national anti-tobacco campaign must have a dozen domains you could add to your list.
September 2nd, 2007 at 7:59 pm
I’m not a lawyer and this isn’t legal advice.
“Bayer - Aspirin.com”
Bayer actually invented and registered the trademark “Asprin” back in the late 1800’s and enjoyed trademark protection worldwide until the end of WWI, when the German company’s assets became spoils of war claimed by Uncle Sam. Even though our government subsequently sold the company, the fact that there was no clear corporate entity aside from Uncle Sam which consumers could associate as the source or origin of the product meant that the trademark protection was lost — or genericized — here in the U.S.A.
Most countries of the world still recognize and protect Bayer’s trademark in “Asprin” - including, I think, our neighbors on both sides of us.
This highlights an important feature of trademark law though — clearly the most important and dangerous area of intellectual property law for domainers, and one worth learning — and that’s that it is a right that belongs less to the companies that enjoy the protection than it does to consumers themselves.
What the courts primarily look to when deciding whether a particular mark should enjoy or continue to enjoy protection is whether the infringing mark will be confusingly similar to the trademark in the minds of consumers who continue to associate the trademark with a particular source. So, if consumers associate a particular brand or mark with a particular company for years and years — and let’s make it a fanciful mark which is entitled to the highest protection (like Google - a made-up word that consumers did not associate with anything at all and had likely never heard before Google opened shop), and the product becomes *so* wildly popular and dominates the market to the point where consumers begin to no longer think of the mark as identifying its maker or source, but instead come to associate the mark with the general class if things to which the product belongs, then all of a sudden this most protected kind of mark loses nearly all of its protection and is (basically) fair game for all.
Thus, Asprin(TM) became asprin (in America, because American’s started acting and thinking like it was the name of the generic substance). Reflect on what we call facial tissue, the stuff we rub on our lips when they get chapped, photostatic copies, petrolium jelly, plastic bandages….
Again - this is a sometimes complex and confusing area of the law, and since it’s one so incredibly important to domainers and their business interests, you should certainly not rely on my quite possibly incorrect musings when assessing the legal availability for purchase or registration of a possible domain name, and should instead seek the counsel of a licensed intellectual property attorney if you have questions or doubt in any particular case.
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Heh I sold soup.com to unilever back in, jeez, I guess late 2000? I got $50000 which wasn’t bad at that time - I renovated my apartment with it.
September 4th, 2007 at 6:57 am
few more significant ones missed out…like the ANSW play
Microsoft (MSFT) - Investor.com
Answers Corp. (Nasdaq: ANSW) - Answers.com, buying Reference.com, which owns Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com
September 4th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Plumber.com - Roto Rooter
September 5th, 2007 at 6:55 am
Polo and Rugby by… Ralph Lauren!
September 5th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Bass Pro Shops - Hunting.com
September 6th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Just found a funny one : eGovernment.com -> Oracle Corp
UPDATE BY JAY: I do not consider eAnything a great generic. It is good I grant you that.
September 6th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Microsoft - TV.net
UPDATE BY JAY: .NET hmmmm. A little bit questionable. I will say it is a great generic just because Microsoft is behind this DotNet movement. I know they own a lot of .NET domains so this is a slipper slope.
September 14th, 2007 at 5:00 am
HairTrimmer goes to Conair Pro
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Office Depot - School.com
August 25th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Apple: Apple.com, airport.com, carbon.com, next.com, newton.com, mammals.org
Berkshire Hathaway: Genre.com (for “General Re”), Fruit.com, Sees.com
Google: Deja.com, Android.com, Urchin.com, Jot.com, Keyhole.com, Dodgeball.com, Hello.com
Also there is a typo on the “motorcycles.com” link, it points to the “motorcyles.com” whois page.
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