[ga] RE: WLS Input

[Ron Wiener <Ron@Snapnames.com>]

K, good question.

There appears to be some confusion between SnapBack - which is a monitoring
AND waiting list service, and the proposed WLS - which has no monitoring
component.  We have many IP clients including most major IP law firms,
government agencies and many major corporations who employ SnapBack
primarily for its monitoring capability and only secondarily as a double
safety net in case their name accidentally deletes due to clerical error or
registry/registrar error.  When we conduct CLE classes (continuing legal
education courses, for credits) we always educate attorneys that the best
strategy is to register for long periods of time.  Besides being far more
economical, it's far more sensible.  Some companies, however, have so much
at stake in a single domain name that they want the extra insurance of a
SnapBack.  One reason is that it provides "early warning" of tampering with
the domain record, e.g. when a webmaster changes the admin contact to his
yahoo account before leaving the company.  Another reason is that very often
the billing and admin contacts will have left the company in 5 or 10 years
when the registration renewal comes up again, and they do not want to take
the risk.  The protection against an illegal transfer (cyber-jacking) or
employee sabotage is far more important than accidental cancellation
protection, when common sense is practiced (i.e. important names are
registered for 5 to 10 years).

Frankly, K, protective use of SnapBack represents low single digits of the
sales of the product.  We have some resellers, e.g. NameEngine, that provide
domain name management services to very large corporations, and they have
some protection products in which they bundle SnapBack.  There have been
some very high-profile names that we've recovered for corporate clients
using SnapBack, like entertainmenttonight.com and americanexpress.net, as a
couple of examples that come to mind.

As for what we will do in the future to help trademark holders: We will
continue to offer some form of free monitoring service as we do today with
our SnapShot product, but we plan on introducing a low-cost security
monitoring product separate from SnapBack which will provide the same
security features, plus some new enhancements over the current SnapBack
product, but without the waiting list function.  This will be a product that
all registrars will be able to offer to their customers.  It should be ready
by Q2.

Hope that's helpful.  If you have any further questions about how we can
assist trademark holders please feel free to contact our Customer Support
department, and ask for one of the legal professionals on the staff.

Cheers,
Ron


> -----Original Message-----
> From: k@widgital.com [mailto:k@widgital.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 7:29 AM
> To: Ron Wiener
> Cc: cameronp@snapnames.com; ga@dnso.org
> Subject: RE: WLS Input
> 
> 
> ><snip>  And many of these customers are trademark owners re-acquiring
> >names in which they consider themselves to have intellectual property
> >rights.  See http://www.snapnames.com/corporate_clients.html.
> >
> >(All contents of SnapNames' website are protected from direct copying by
> >applicable copyright laws.)
> >
> >Sincerely,
> >
> >
> >Cameron Powell
> >VP of Business Development and General Counsel
> >SnapNames
> >115 NW First Avenue
> >Suite 300
> >Portland, OR  97209
> >(503) 219-9990 x229    (503) 502-5030 cell    (503) 274-9749 fax
> >cameronp@snapnames.com
> ><snip>
> 
> 
> What will you do to support the Trademark owners who already have the
> domains that match their trademarks and do not wish to discontinue use of
> them at any time?  None of your literature permits these folks to opt-out
> of your automated re-registration program.
> 
> :)
> 
> ~k
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