Gadot

perhaps they do own it but have not finished the paper work etc. we don't know whom the owner is??

CPRich

Bonvoy @BONvoy

Social travel startup, that makes group travel painless

Categories:Automotive, Collaboration, Collectibles, Social Media, Transportation, Travel
Headquarters Regions: Greater Houston Area, Southern US
Founded Date: Jul 30, 2008

BearX220

Searching competitive or sound-alike uses of a proposed brand name is an automatic part of corporate nomenclature work. As a rule you cannot claim as a trademark a name already in prominent use in your business sector, e.g. you can use the name McDonald's for a new motor oil or wool socks, but not a new hamburger restaurant.

Securing relevant URLs is also part of due diligence -- even URLs that could be turned against you. Political candidates, for example, purchase not only JoeBlow2020.com and JoeBlowUSSenate.com, etc. but also DefeatJoeBlow.com and JoeBlockStinks.com. United Airlines obviously wishes it had snapped up untied.com.

I am very surprised that Marriott appropriated a name already in use for 10+ years in the travel / hospitality sector, and did not nail down the relevant URLs. It sounds like either sloppy detective work or poor foresight. And all this for a name that is decidedly imperfect / weird. Some top exec must have really liked it.

Horace

It seems much more likely that Marriott legitimately secured the brand of a failed startup.

Here's a press release from 2010 about social travel startup Bonvoy:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...103559664.html

You can visit Bonvoy's website, as it was in 2011, through the magic of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine:

Bonvoy - Group Travel in Facebook - Plan, Book, and Split

It's hard to know who now owns the domain name Bonvoy.com.

The domain could have lapsed if old Bonvoy failed to pay the renewal to its domain registrar, and someone could have bought it in hopes of reselling it.

At this point, the domain name has some value to Marriott, but Marriott doesn't really need it.

PHL

Does the original 2008 Bonvoy company/organization have any legal standing to sue Marriott for using their name, considering it's in the same business sector (travel)? I'm guessing there's some serious haggling going on between Marriott legal and this company. It's not like they scooped up the name as soon as rumors started swirling about the new Marriott program.

Collierkr

mahasamatman

So it looks like someone squatted the domain. Do you think Marriott will give in to extortion to get the domain?

Mwenenzi

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...onvoy-com.html
See post 14:= name/web site was registered in 2008

TerryK

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...onvoy-com.html

Zorak

If you have no technical or marketing acumen and are unaware of things like email phishing and brand protection then maybe you should be more open in your thinking about why a company might want to register a domain that you don't intend to use legally. The legal department in fact might *prefer* to register it as a "defensive domain" even with no intention of using it, rather than leaving it in someone else's hands.

C17PSGR

While someone bought the domain name in 2008, Marriott trademarked it. It might be a different question if the original company contested the trademark.

And no ... just because Marriott trademarked it, doesn't mean the owner has to give it to Marriott. It does probably mean, however, that it can't be used in connection with the following categories:Goods and ServicesIC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: incentive award programs; promoting hotel, resort, airline, car rental, time share, travel, and vacation services through an incentive award program; organization, operation and supervision of loyalty programsIC 036. US 100 101 102. G & S: real estate timesharing services featuring an incentive award program; real estate listing, rental and leasing services for residential housing, apartments, rooms in homes, vacation homes, and villas featuring an incentive award program; credit card services

IC 043. US 100 101. G & S: hotel services featuring an incentive award program; hotel reservations



So, for example, using the website to refer to a website with hotel reservations would almost certainly lead to a problem. On the other hand, maybe there is something it could be used for in an unrelated industry.

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?

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.

Edit: As to the technical acumen bit, you might want to research the first part of my handle.

itsaboutthejourney

Marriott took away a website and app from SPG users that was far superior to that of what we use now and apparently fired most of the IT people from Starwood. With this level of incompetence, does anyone expect Marriott to be savvy about alternate domains?

Horace

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.

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.

C17PSGR

I don't think the other site trademarked Bonvoy so it appears abandoned.

Cybersquatting isn't what it used to be. The owner fo the www.bonvoy.com doesn't have to sell it to Marriott but cant use it for travel. So, its not really of much value unless someone wants to use it for something outside the travel industry. It's perfectly logical for Marriott to sit and wait until the owner decides to sell it to Marriott for whatever Marriott is willing to pay, It's not as if Marriott is driving people to use Bonvoy to make reservations.

Domain registration would be a marketing function, not an IT function. So, the problems with the website are unrelated. Of course, the marketing function at Marriott is being driven by a legacy SPG guy. Additionally, the domain doesn't matter ... Marriott owns the trademark.

And ... where did you hear that Marriott fired Starwood's IT people? I believe almost everyone in that function was offered a position at Marriott.