Originally Posted by
CCIE_Flyer
I've already pointed out the importance of at least elementary research, have I not? The domain is already in use (parked does not necessarily mean not at all in use) - for e-mail for a travel-related business. Now don't you think it important that Marriott toe the line that it's Marriott Bonvoy they lay claim to and that they are not in any way infringing upon anyone who may be using the Bonvoy name/brand in a stand-alone fashion? Completely different animals - capisce?
Bonvoy, the social group travel startup from a decade ago, failed. The domain and trademark were in use at one time for a website, Facebook, and email — but no longer.
Marriott either bought trademark assets from whatever legal entity still remains of the old Bonvoy (which might have given Marriott a good jump-start if that entity owned international trademarks), or Marriott's lawyers determined the old Bonvoy trademark had lapsed and would be considered legally abandoned.
Domain registration (with a domain registrar) is separate from trademark registrations (with government agencies in the US and elsewhere). It seems likely that the domain registration expired due to non-renewal, and somebody grabbed it and parked it with GoDaddy (which costs almost nothing), hoping to resell it some day.
Originally Posted by
CCIE_Flyer
None of us knows for sure whether they made an offer to take it over (presumably the price would've been pretty darned attractive to a business not even operating a website, no?), but anyone with even a hint of legal or business sense would suspect otherwise - strongly.
So far, Marriott has not bothered to pay whatever the owners of bonvoy.com want for the domain. If Marriott were to acquire the domain, Marriott would probably just use it to redirect users to marriott.com, just as marriot.com (with a single T) redirects to marriott.com (with two Ts). The domain at best would be a "nice to have" for Marriott, not a business necessity.