Eneloop.com - Whois not Sanyo!

[Bones]

Thought I would see if Sanyo was using the most logical domain name and the most desired domain extension to promote the Eneloop.

I was quite surprised to find that eneloop.com was registered to what appears to be a private individual in the United Kingdom.

Enter eneloop.com on this page for the whois details:

http://resellers.tucows.com/whois ...whois

I was even more surprised to note the domain name was first registered on 02 November 2005, less than two weeks prior to the Sanyo press release announcing the Eneloop:

http://www.sanyo.co.jp ... eneloop

Difficult to believe that Sanyo didn't get there first, especially when they must have decided on the Eneloop name months before the press release.

As well, is it even remotely possible that the choice of the domain name 'eneloop' and the timing of the registration by a party other than Sanyo is mere coincidence?

 

[VidPro]

yes a COINincidence, just like anytime you get something going, and a Domain Grabber snags it up , to see if he can stuff you for 50X what he paid to lock it out :scowl:

Decide to call it "segway" right after the first press releace said it was a "scootaway" and watch the 50 "scootaway" domains park and rot.

ahh i am just ticked off at all the times i mispelled an address, and the popup blocker went ballistic.

 

[jzmtl]

Doesn't the states have an anti-parking law now? I think it's along the line of if you have no legitimate reason to possess the website you have to give it up to others who do.

 

[VidPro]

yes, they do, so they toss a bunch of popups and adds in and claim its being used, or toss 2 free feeds in, or whatever needed to bypass the law. or the notorious meta jump to another site

 

[Zenster]

yes, they do, so they toss a bunch of popups and adds in and claim its being used, or toss 2 free feeds in, or whatever needed to bypass the law. or the notorious meta jump to another site

Sure, but if the company that legitimately owned that name were to challenge the trespasser in court, I doubt if a popup defense would prevail.

I just don't think that Sanyo cares that much since they market the Eneloop on their main site.
One way to think of it is to realize that many manufacturers make lots and lots of specifically named products under their primary company name and I doubt if many of those manufacturers worry too much about reserving each and every one of the names they use for their individual products.

A simple example would be Nike Shoes. Just off the top of my head, I think they have a shoe called an "Air Max", but if you type in www.airmax.com , you get nothing about Nike at all, and I doubt if Nike cares.

 

[Jackson]

I just don't think that Sanyo cares that much since they market the Eneloop on their main site.

I think the content currently on eneloopusa.com would have fit nicely on an eneloop.com site. Seems like someone just dropped the ball here.

 

[Bones]

I think the content currently on eneloopusa.com would have fit nicely on an eneloop.com site. Seems like someone just dropped the ball here.

There is also eneloop.ca, eneloop.com.sg, eneloop.de, eneloop.info and probably a bunch of others as well.

I just had another look at the press release while checking the hyperlink, and realized my earlier statement that the press release was issued on the 14th of November was wrong.

It was actually issued on the 1st of November. The Eneloop cells were released on the 14th.

This means the domain was registered exactly one day after the press release, not two weeks before.

I was going to say what were they thinking regarding Sanyo's failure to grab eneloop.com, but it seems more a case of what weren't they thinking.

As Zenster has noted, we're almost conditioned to plug the name and the .com extension in as a first step in looking for something online.

To me, having eneloop.com as the primary site with links to sub-domains dedicated to different regions would be much desirable than the current hodgepodge of sites.

 

[jzmtl]

If sanyo released the press release, then the site is grabbed, they probably didn't care much to begin with.

 

[Zenster]

If sanyo released the press release, then the site is grabbed, they probably didn't care much to begin with.

Exactly. This "Internet thing" isn't new to Sanyo so the people in charge of such things (marketing) within the Sanyo company knew darn well that someone would (could) grab a site name when it was announced.

It evidently didn't fit within their marketing plans to do so, so that indicates that they didn't care at all. If they did, they would have grabbed it way back when someone decided upon the Eneloop trademark name, and that would have been a long time before anyone outside the company could even dream what this new battery was going to be named.

And by the way... "Eneloop" is a pretty stupid name, dontcha' think?
"Hybrio" on the other hand, evokes a nice mental connection to it's obvious root word "hybrid" which then takes the potential customer to thinking of "new and different", "fuel efficient", and "special". That's good stuff from a marketing standpoint.
"Eneloop", on the other hand, evokes thoughts of "envelope" (what's that got to do with batteries?), "omelet" ("a sloppy clump of eggs".. again, what the..?), and "loop", something that goes round and round (suggesting "rechargeable", but at the same time, "going nowhere" as in "caught in a loop").
I think Sanyo needs some new marketing people, so I guess I should have my people call their people.

Ooops, I guess I went off on a tangent...

 

[ksbikecommuter]

Eneloop also envisions an endless loop of discharge and recharge cycles.

Ian