July 13, 2007

A brief note - when announcing a new name for something, secure the domain name first...

DOH! From Central Ohio 10TV.com:
Man Buys Web Address Hours After Water Park's Name Revealed
About 10 months before the scheduled opening of the new water park at the Columbus Zoo, the park's name is spouting a problem.

After six weeks of voting, Zoombezi Bay was chosen by the public to be the water park's new name, 10TV's Brittany Westbrook reported.

"We wanted something that had zoo in it because it's all part of the zoo complex," said Jerry Borin with the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. "We wanted it to be a bit exotic sounding."

While the park's name was chosen without a hitch, naming its Web site may present some difficultly.

After seeing the park's name in a newspaper Thursday morning, a Columbus man purchased the Web site address ZoombeziBay.com for $8.95, Westbrook reported.

Even though the zoo owns Zoombezi Bay as a trademark, it won't be able to use it as the name for its Web site. To obtain the rights, the zoo would have to buy the address from the man, or make changes to the newly-chosen Zoombezi Bay name.

"I wonder why someone would want to do it," Borin said. "We created it; the public voted for it - why not let the public have it?"

The man who purchased the Web site address refused to appear on camera for 10TV's report, but said he was willing to sit down with the zoo to negotiate. He said it's the first Web site address he's ever purchased.

Borin, meanwhile, said the zoo had no intentions to pay the man more than what he originally paid for the address. He also said the zoo didn't have plans to change the Zoombezi Bay name.
I've heard of Pope-squatting but Waterpark-squatting??? Posted by DaveH at July 13, 2007 9:42 PM | TrackBack