MLB Gets Web Rights in MLB.com

Domain name transferred from prominent law firm

New York, September 5, 2000 -- What's in a domain name?

Plenty, if you are Major League Baseball. After negotiations with one of the nation's largest and most prominent law firms, the baseball lords obtained the domain name "mlb.com" from the firm. The league will ultimately abandon its current address, www.majorleaguebaseball.com.

No terms were announced, but it is safe to say that the law firm, Philadelphia-based Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, did not give it away for nothing. After a transfer period when mlb.com can click to either the firm or Major League Baseball, the law firm will abandon www.mlb.com and use www.morganlewis.com as its web address. Ironically, Morgan, Lewis represented Major League Baseball in labor negotiations in the late 1980s.

This agreement demonstrate the importance of branding on the Internet. The rising interest in the web has spawned a growth industry of designing, buying and selling web addresses as if they are a commodity. In the early years, it created "cybersquatters" who reserved hundreds of web addresses -- often with trademarked names -- and tried to sell them to their rightful firms. In 1998, legislation made this practice illegal.

                                                                                                            Mark Conrad

 

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