Impact of Brandability-Marketability-Value of a .Com if someone else owns .Net?

Impact of Brandability of a .Com if someone else owns .Net?

I was curious and hoping to get some opinions on this. I realize there are a lot of domain name extensions available. I personally would only consider purchasing a .net to lock someone out. But am debating if this is worthwhile on a limited budget.

I have contemplated on whether it is worth spending $ to actually get .nets, or use that money to in turn get more .coms

So it boils down to owning for example 100.coms and 100.nets or 200.coms.

This is coming from a domainer with a significantly limited budget.

I feel like it is a damn*d if you do , damn*d if you don't type situation.

As if I go ahead and purchase .nets I am cutting my .com portfolio in half, but possibly adding more control over that particular domain.

If I don't purchase the .net, I am able to double up on .coms but leaving a door open for someone else to possibly cause me problems..




Some points that need opinions:

(1.) How much do you feel it would hurt a .coms brandability/marketability/value if someone else is playing around with the .net For example, would eBay be what it is today if someone else was promoting and using eBay.net?

(2.) Say that you purchase a .com and don't register the .net. Someone comes along and registers the .net and starts developing. Could they somehow trademark their name with the .net and force you out of the .com ? Is there any difference if you are actively developing a site around it vs having it parked. Any thoughts on the legalities here are greatly appreciated.

I believe there might be a story with Zune.net Zune.com related to this but am unsure of the specifics besides the fact that MS is the .net and offered to purchase the .com and the guy didn't sell. Any Guru's that can elaborate would be super.

(3.) Would you develop / try to brand a .com knowing that someone else owns the .net version, with or without an active site. Could this be an advantage? Any major disadvantages that you see?

(4.) What are your thoughts on copycats / related sites if you don't purchase the .net version of your domain?

Say you are the owner of eBay.com a startup company with little to no money *hypothetical*. You don't have the funds to purchase the .net, you have not registered as a trademark. Someone snatches up eBay.net and a few others, say ebayauctions.com and so on. Perhaps they don't put up a competing auction site but resources and other stuff related to your users. How big of an issue do you think this will be, considering you could of developed all of that yourself, or is this a good thing having people emulate you?

(5.) Depending on the legalities in these situations is there anything that you know can be done by a webmaster with very little revenue or funds. I could imagine similar situations happening to webmasters and them not being able to do much.
Are there any legal entities who would be willing to pursue a domain squatter on the basis of getting paid their legal fees from the other party if it comes to going to court?


Any other additional feedback or thoughts are appreciated.

 

My vote goes to Buy more .coms instead of .nets

 

ya that is what I want to do lol.

 

200 .com's. Have no doubt about it.

 

.coms all the way...Say if you own a .net site...you'll still end up loosing around 40% of new users to the same .com site...mainly because people have an habbit of keying in .com

 

The world prefers .com over .net.If someone have .net name of your .com domain your .com domain will rank higher.

 

I wasn't aware of this.

 

unless those .net's are premium, drop them. .net sucks - I wish it never existed. The only point of owning a .net is if you already have the .com and don't want someone else to get the name you're marketing.