*** Here Is A List Of Some Of The Best Domain Name Resources Available ***NEW YORK, NY – If you had not heard yet – domain registry, parking and portfolio management company “Uniregistry” has launched a re-branding effort changing its popular brand name from “Uniregistry” to simply “UNI”.
Two things immediately came to mind upon seeing this news.
- Does the company own the UNI.com domain name? The answer: Surprisingly it does not. The domain name UNI.com has been registered since 1993 and is currently owned by an Italian company which according to its translated Who We Are page is over 100 years old and named the Italian National Unification Body. That’s oddity number one.
- The second thing I thought to check was the new gTLD application list, to see if maybe UNI’s love of the new gTLDs (they own hundreds of new extensions) spawned the burning desire to itself operate on its own branded URL, “.uni” instead, switching from this old, played out senior citizen of domain names (joke – .com) to a new flashy gTLD. The result? No application found.
Seems odd to me to re-brand an already existing and successful brand to a three character acronym without having the .com domain name, especially for a pioneering domain company that itself, buys, sells and trades hundreds of thousands of domain names.
According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office Uniregistrar Corp. filed for a trademark for “UNI” on November 28, 2018.
However, I do see at least one live mark with similar goods and services from a Hong Kong company which ‘could’ or ‘might’ have the ability to interfere or hold-up the mark from being approved for principle registration, (Serial Number 87349265 contains some potential similarities with the sending and receiving of email).
Uniregistry Corporation was founded in 2012 by Internet pioneer Frank Schilling and became an ICANN accredited registrar in 2013. The original Uniregistry trademark was approved in the United States in 2014.
About The Author: John Colascione is Chief Executive Officer of Internet Marketing Services Inc. He specializes in Website Monetization, is a Google AdWords Certified Professional, authored a ‘how to’ book called ”Mastering Your Website‘, and is a key player in several Internet related businesses through his search engine strategy brand Searchen Networks®
The world is changing. Young people are accepting that you do not “need” a .com anymore. In the past owning the .com was a must. Today it’s a nice-to-have – within 15 years it will be commonplace to see big companies operating from their own TLD or an alternative extension. Exciting to be alive during this evolution in naming.
I respectfully disagree Paul. It’s going to take 50 years until this comes to be, if ever. When I think about how all this boils down, I always resort to comparing the new domain extensions to the toll free number business which has been around since 1966. Business analysts still consider choosing any other prefix than 800, a potentially risky decision that can negatively impact a business’s ROI and ad response. And although 888, 877, 866 and so on all began coming available in 1996 (over twenty years ago), you will never see a big brand, or at least I do not know of one, which will begin branding its business on an alternative while a competitor owns the premium 800 number. The toll free and vanity phone number business is one of the best, if not ‘the’ best comparison to measure when it comes to consumer recognition of numbers and letters and what is likely to happen in the future with Internet domain names.
@Paul,
Sorry , but you couldn’t be more wrong. The new gtlds are a horribly bad idea.
What you wrote above was sentiment similar to what had been stated by the supporters of .biz, .info, .name, .tel, .mobi and other failed extensions from the early 2000’s. To put it bluntly, the new gltds are a waste of cyberspace. The extensions are consistently shunned by netizens and come with zero credibility. You and your friends need to stop saying that someday they will catch on. This is clearly wrong. They never will for a ton of very good reasons.
@paul
Your comment is not based on logic.
The leading online monopolies-Facebook.COM, Google.COM, Apple.COM, and Amazon.COM-continue to use .COM as their brand. They have the power, money and leverage to do what ever they please. They are only beholden to the internet and .COM. It’s the source of their success.
I can think of no better investment for the future-Single-Word, Memorable .COM
Sorry i dont agree thats so not true.
new GTLDS are failing and wont take over
How will I get to “Uni”? It makes no sense. Their branding consultant should be fired. It’s a hot mess.
What happens when they are trying to convince a company on why they should acquire a high profile .com and it becomes apparent that “Uni” doesn’t even own their own .com?
When it is your own industry I think it is inexcusable, like the gold dealer who wears silver or the realestate agent who doesn’t own a house.
Great analogies Snoop.
Terrible marketing idea. How many times have they rebranded by now? UniRegistry, UniRegistrar, Unimarket, DNS, DomainNameSales, now UNI? This certainly ain’t the last because UNI as a brand is simply non sustainable and has been their worst rebranding thus far. They don’t even own the domain, Uni.com.
Their logo looks very similar to UniLever, one of the largest companies in the world. Honestly, they need help. And this shows.
The only name they should rebrand to (and then stop rebranding all the time), is UniReg.com. Change their logo so they don’t get sued by UniLever.
UNI is the best! lol
https://onlinedomain.com/2018/12/05/domain-name-news/i-have-now-completely-left-uniregistry/
Another bad decision by this company …ho hum
it is happening right before our eyes and it may not take 15 years (let alone 50 years) until .com is a lot less important. Smart money can see the handwriting on the wall – Verisign raising prices on a diminishing growth base new registry consolidation. Round 2 rumblings. It is coming.