BP Cares About BPCares.com

BP CaresThere was a lot of commentary on Rick’s Blog when he mentioned that he bought and was successfully monetizing many BP-related domain names. It seems that whenever Rick writes something controversial, there are dozens of opinions voiced in the comment section of his blog, and this post was no different.

I received a Google News Alert today about an article appearing on Charlotte, North Carolina’s Fox affiliate website about the owner of BPCares.com. Apparently BP wants to acquire BPCares.com from the registrant, and he isn’t interested in selling it to the company. According to the article, the domain registrant purchased this and other companyCares.com domain names apparently after seeing NBACares.com used in action by the National Basketball Association.

The article mentioned that BP has tried to buy this domain name more than once and that the company keeps calling him about the name, but it didn’t mention whether BP threatened a UDRP or any other legal action. In my opinion, it wouldn’t be outside of the realm of possibility if it did threaten legal action, especially since the owner apparently confirmed that he registered other names related to other companies.

Smartly, the domain owner does not appear to have BPCares.com monetized (or even resolving to another website), and he didn’t mention a sales price, so perhaps his aim wasn’t to profit from the BP brand. However, it does appear to be listed for sale on Sedo without an asking price.

I don’t understand the motive for having this article written, as it only serves to show that he did register the domain name along with other corporate domain names that are similar. A quick search shows the registrant also appears to own GoogleCares.com and DisneyCares.com. If the registrant or someone he knows hadn’t mentioned the situation to the news station, it likely would have remained below the radar.

Let’s hope for his sake that BP doesn’t care enough about BPCares.com to take legal action because that could get quite expensive.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

27 COMMENTS

  1. Even more interesting is this guy who owns bpcares.com also owns,

    bpcares.net
    bpcares.org
    bpcares.info
    bpcares.us
    bpcares.biz

    and has contacted me to list those domain for sale on Mostwanteddomains.com which I declined to do.

  2. @ Adi

    I don’t know when it comes to names like these, but if you read Rick’s post, you can see that at least some make money.

  3. @ Adi

    When it comes to TM names, I am very careful about not registering them. I am not a legal expert and won’t judge someone else’s business model, but it’s not a business I am in.

  4. Bpcares.org goes to a godaddy lander page.
    But, bpcares,us and bpcares,info go to his
    therealsouth,com

    GoogleCares,com, DisneyCares,com –
    I’m shaking my head at these.

    Some free legal advice Mr. Rollins.
    Stupidity is not a good defense.

  5. This idiot deserves to have the names taken away and then some.

    But Elliot, I have to question your “Rick’s Blog when he mentioned that he bought and was successfully monetizing many BP-related domain names,” even though you mentioned it casually. Rick was talking about $5 to $20, hardly worth anyone’s time, even if BP would never sue. Rick just loves to brag and write about himself, I would have been ashamed to even mention “success” and a few dollars at the same sentence.

  6. @ Priv

    Rick’s point was (I think) that while people constantly register crappy names that mean nothing and make no revenue, he and others are still able to hand register select names that make money out of the gate. I don’t agree with his methodology but I believe that was his point.

  7. Hi, I am a Rookie in domain field. I should say, with 100 million domain blogs out there, there isn’t a single post on the internet to explain what is a USPTO filing? How to file one? How to defend one? How are the parties involved on both sides? How much money spent on both sides on an average? etc etc etc. Shame on you all big fellas. This field ain’t friendly to new comers. That’s per sure.

    • “Shame on you all big fellas.”

      @ Mark

      Instead of shaming us, perhaps you should speak to an attorney if this important topic interests you. I am not a trademark (or other type of) attorney, and I have no experience with a USPTO filing, so why would you want me to write about something I know nothing about? That makes no sense.

  8. @ Raman

    I guess a secret is what the reader makes of it. I don’t think I am doing anything secretive to make money. I buy good names for less than I think they’re worth, and I sell them for a profit. I bought a name on Snapnames last weekend for $288 and have reached a deal to sell it for $1,500 to an end user. I found it using FreshDrop.net, did some quick research to have a gut feel for its value and reached a deal to sell it. It’s a photography domain name and it’s a small niche, but there are lots of photographers who do this particular type of photography. Anyone else could have bought it. There was only one other bidder.

    This isn’t rocket science.

  9. @ Mark

    “Shame on you all big fellas. This field ain’t friendly to new comers.”

    I guess you don’t read the same domaininvesting.com that I do. Elliot is one of the more open and newbie-friendly bloggers out there. Shit, just a little while back he held a little contest and is now mentoring the winner.

    There probably are elitist domain bloggers out there, but Elliot ain’t one of them

  10. @AB

    There’s no “Domain Name Industry” or “Domaining” in the true sense of industry.

    What we have a bunch of guys kissing up and kicking down. They are armed to the teeth and in a circle; inevitably, they will start shooting. Think about who will be the casualties.

    I have decided to do alternatives to the ‘domain parking’ for now, since they are the most crooked. The next is Google, obviously it accumulates all these power to force people to use ‘Keyword names’ , but googles name contains no keywords, nor does Yahoo, nor Xerox, nor Groupon!

    As for people like Elliot, they let big Corporations take back the opportunity we had. If a company or copyright owner is given, say 30 days, to register their names and interest in the copyright, FAILURE to do so should make the Domain name available to a Registrant, and the copyright owner FOREVER precluded from any such claims.

    • @ Uzoma

      I’d rather have the corporation renew their name than have a scammer register it and use it maliciously, which will then make legit domain owners and operators look bad. If they don’t pay heed, it’s their own problem I suppose and now even more people know the name will be coming available.

  11. These comments have gotten off topic. If it’s on Sedo then one of their skilled salespeople ought to pitch in and close the deal. There’ll never be an opportunity like this and a sense of urgency to push the sale.

    Most people would agree, though, that BP really cares!

    He better act fact because I’m sure the name BP will go away just like my car insurance became 21st to keep our minds off the fact that we are paying money to AIG (now sold off to Farmers).

  12. @Owen,

    “Most people would agree, though, that BP really cares!”

    I take it you mean about acquiring the domain, obviously. i am sure you are right, and that most people agree that BP really cares … about shaping public opinion

  13. @Elliot,

    “Mark” left the exact same comment on Tia Wood’s blog. He ruffled a few feathers over there as well.

    As far as BPcares… I think the owner was smart about not parking or pointing because BP could stand for a lot of things, however he’s got a few strikes against him for owning other trademark domains, so I think the only reason they haven’t bitch-slapped him with a UDRP is to avoid the time involved in getting the domain through legal means as I believe the relevance of the domain name has a shelf life.

    If they offered him his reg fee back, he should take it and run.

  14. Wait a minute, he is “looking for 60K for the name”? Are you kidding me? The only person that would be able to pay that and make their money on it, would be BP, not some random guy off the street. And they can always go to UDRP or sedo and make the 60K offer for it, and he would not know who is making the offer…

  15. IMO
    BP can mean many things because they are only letters
    and BP oil can’t restrict them to mean only the company name .
    But in GoogleCares,com and DisneyCares,com , Google and Disney are only these companies .

  16. Elliot, not only that, but the fact that he got an interview about it on TV, talking about it, and the other domains he owns, as well as to have them say on the news that he is looking for 60K for it. With the facts in that interview if I was a lawyer, I would argue that he is trying to prevent BP from reflecting their mark in the domain name.

  17. The main reason there are laws that protect companies because some people may use a name to hurt a company. —sucks.com or worthless—.com. In addition, companies have to go through a lot to copyright their names.

    If you go out and borrow pictures and literature without giving credit to the creator, then you’re going to lose out big.

    The guy should be allowed to sell those domains on any auction. Domainers get denied for putting up stuff that has nothing to do with a trademark. It’s only fair that the rules apply to these domain names that contain company names.

    Why Park will refuse to accept any copyright names on their site. They have a good parking system that allows me to build my domains. There’s no reason to avoid parking domains because you can write custom articles, put up links and generate traffic.

    There are times that domainers register some names on accident. They do so without ever knowing about a company. If one uses the domain to hurt a company, then they should lose the name.

    The amount the guy wants for the domain is ridiculous. People may register domains that others may determine as bad but they seem to be basing their perception on premium names versus average names that can still sell.

    Once can quickly learn to register profitable names with the right help and confidence. I won’t say anything negative here about what names were deemed as bad, but then sold to companies that used them to their advantage. I can guarantee you that there are plenty of good names unregistered.

    Build your portfolio with new small domains first, and then work your way into the premium names. It’s much easier to sell 125 domains that are worth a $1000 than to push one domains valued at $1000.

    The trademark names should be taken away. I don’t how any hosting company will accept them on their system.

    Cool article.

  18. Because of this blog, I saved a ton of money in the past. I used to register a combination of reverse names and a GEO domain (NYC). While I made the mistake of registering the reverse order domains, I have done well with the GEO ones.

    I thank this blog for saving me a lot of money. I did manage to drastically improve my domain portfolio with help from an industry leader, and agree that I’m in a groove with finding some great names, as well as selling off some old ones.

    I also attribute my success to Elliot because he supplied me with a lot of good information at the beginning.

    I don’t think the domain industry is luck. Once you find the right buyers, you know what exactly they’re looking to buy. I have many tactics to determine exactly what they want. One company may end up purchasing more than a dozen domains that they will use to reduce their advertising expenses.

    Off topic, I managed to sell a .us domain on a popular auction site that we do business with. I’m totally content with the sale.

    The very next day, a .com ended with a sale on the same auction site. You’ll go through some droughts, but during those moment you’ll learn how to develop a technique to become successful.

    My advice is to not to always look for the 4 figure domains. There are plenty of great names that appraise between $160-$500. These names will most likely produce a sale after the 60 day grace period. You have to be persistent and confident.

    You may try a few months calling and sending e-mails, and then all of a sudden you’re receiving offers from your replies. When people reject any of your domains, try to always be courteous. You never know when you may come across a domain they might be interested in.

    There’s a lot of smart domain investors that visit this blog. They don’t mind taking a moment to share some information. Thanks.

    Good luck.

  19. This guy is a genius, Joseph Rollins should be commended about his vision to acquire the BPCARES domains.
    It seems that he owns the Brad Pitt Cares domains. The Brad Pitt Cares domains that Joseph Rollins own are the following:

    http://www.bpcares.com
    http://www.bpcares.net
    http://www.bpcares.org
    http://www.bpcares.onfo
    http://www.bpcares.us
    http://www.bpcares.biz

    I think that Angelina Jolie should acquire these domains to support Mr Brad Pitt charities.

    Its a win win for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

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