One Response to AdultMatch.com sold for $95,000

1. Ken says:

   July 12, 2008 at 1:27 am

   1. AdultMatch.com was registered on 1997-08-28
   2. Match.com was registered on 1998-06-02
   3. “Match” was first developed back in 1995
   4. “Match” was trademarked in 1995
   4. “Match” was moved to match.com in 1998
   5. “Adult Match” was not developed until 2003
   6. “Adult Match” usage is confusingly similar

   So even though AdultMatch.com is the senior registration they are not the senior user. “Match”, the company, was already in existence almost two years before “AdultMatch.com” and was under commercial use almost ten years before AdultMatch.com’s first development. Clearly the original registrant of AdultMatch.com had knowledge of “Match” from Match’s previous years of branding.

   This was a great sale for the seller. Yet, in the end, it is a ticking time bomb (liability) for both the seller and the buyer. IAC, the parent company of Match (Fed. reg. number 2088545), can go after both parties at anytime here for infringement and brand dilution. Granted, the longer IAC waits the more their brand is affected and the less the courts would side with IAC for not thoroughly protecting its “Match” brand.

   These new owners should also watch out for “Adult Match Maker” (Fed. reg number 3291065) which was filed back in 2006, two years before this sale. It falls under the same category and is confusingly similar.

   Regrettably, this hurts the domain industry and its credibility. We need to bring better education and awareness on the rights and liabilities of owning domain names.