Yesterday the owner of Apples.com an Onions.com took offense to my list saying that there could be legal problems regarding apples.com and that onions would not have the same problems. While I merely meant that the new owner would have to continually makes sure that no content infringed on Apple Computer’s trademark or there would be legal issues, he was deeply concerned with my post. So out of courtesy I have allowed his response. I might add that I asked him for traffic data, previous offers for the domains, and other info that I could put in a post that would encourage higher bids from buyers. The answers were hundreds of visitors per day, never any legal issues at all. All I can say is I was willing to try to help promote some awesome domains but I kept getting Owen Fragerish type responses (lots of detail and promotion). It is still a great name. The Apples.com auction ends soon so bid high and bid often.
Dear Shane,
In your publication you raised the question of the legal issues a registrant of apples.com will face relative to onions.com with both being up for sale this week. I have been unable to find a domain name more memorable than apples.com available on the internet today. The reserve price of apples.com is very low in light of the power of its world wide mind share and Onions.com is being auctioned no reserve so the users of NameJet.com will determine the price.
A check of WHOIS reveals that apples.com and onions.com were registered the same day in 1995, about 17 years ago. The timing of my registration of these two domain names relative to each other is proof of their good faith registration as both registrations fit a perfect match pattern. Each to an English language produce term with each term representing billions of dollars of world wide trade.
I believe that the use of third level domain names to execute a context search will increase dramatically in the next few years. So for example buy.apples.com, fuji.apples.com, michigan.apples.com, sweet.onions.com, mexican.onions.com once developed will all provide a value that will benefit the registrant and the internet user. I think that all domain investors should consider the suitability of a domain for the development of the sub domains in its valuation of any domain name for investment and development, but few do. The marketing of new TLDs will inevitably pitch this aspect of domain name selection and evaluation. The public will be educated on direct navigation in the process of explaining why they should use and or buy new TLDs.
Onions.com produces consistent traffic and Apples.com gets hundreds of type in visitors each day.
In the 17 years that I have administered onions.com and apples.com there has not been one complaint or adverse claim by any trademark holder or anyone only offers to buy Both names have never been involved in any partnerships or potentially rights clouding deals.I have never had any problems or controversy with apples.com or onions.com and I do not expect any new registrant to have any problems. Both domains are world class.
Apples.com auction closes August 6 at 2pm to 5pm EST. http://auction.apples.com
Onions.com auction closes August 8 at 2pm to 5pm EST. http://auction.onions.com
As I found out with one domain I used to own years ago, one single slip and it was game over. Innocent mistake or not.
Rick,
I wanted to do a post saying that for 17 years he’s been able to keep the domain clean and legal free. So it can be done and HAS been done for a long time. He insisted on writing it himself. The conversation all started with my little quip merely saying Onions.com “won’t have as many legal issues as apples.com”. He took it as me saying onions would have some legal issues and apples.com would have more. When I merely meant that the owner of apples would have to work a little harder than the owner of onion to avoid legal issues.
Looking at snapshots on Domaintools, he used ppc landing for a number of years.
Occasionally, the ppc would slip in a link involving ipods or ipod downloads. Even though, you could tell he was trying to be careful. He was lucky that the singular was not actively monitoring the plural.
The one snapshot showed ebay page with a min. offer of $650k for “A”.
Checking the auction for “A” which concludes today, it is up to $89k without the reserve met. An hour to go.
I hope he gets what he wants for “A” and “O”. Great domains.
Meyer,
Better domains than I’ve ever owned. And as a fellow domain investor I hope he gets more than he ever imagined
Shane, both links go to the Apples.com auction, need to fix the onions.com link…..
Thanks Mike,
Can anyone tell I took the day off? Actually posting and responding to comments. A miracle
About 69,000,000 tonnes of apples were grown worldwide in 2010, and China produced almost half of this total. The United States is the second-leading producer, with more than 6% of world production. Turkey is third, followed by Italy, India and Poland.
The glass is more than half full for this domain.
The remark I took issue with, not offense was:
‘onions.com Won’t have as much legal problems as apples.com’
Never had any legal problems with either name. The remark should have been…
-Onions.com ‘no way to slip an fall with this one.’
Everyone look both ways before they cross the street!
Apples.com obviously a great name but he is probably trying to get an end-user price from domainers given his BIN $650k this time last year.
I would have to assume he has already contacted the largest players from WA state and if they don’t want it at that price, well…