LAFC

In my attempt to scoop the Columbus Crew SC logo before it was unveiled I spent a fair amount of time in the database of the US Patent & Trademark Office. The filings are publicly available and fairly easy to search.

I came up empty handed in searching for the new Crew logo. However, I learned a few things about Major League Soccer in the process. For one, they hold the trademarks for most, if not all, the logos in the league. I presume this is because of the 1 entity system.

However, sometimes trademarks will filed by investor groups before they were transferred to MLS. There are two Los Angles related trademarks that were filed this way. These are the following images:

During the LAFC presser by MLS I noticed @wrongsideofpond retweeted an image from @fltrotta. They had stumbled across the first image above.

I remembered seeing these filings when searching the database for Major League Soccer owned trademarks. I did not think much of them at the time since I was focused on the Crew. However, they may be relevant given the LAFC announcement.

It seems that CHIVAS GUADALAJARA LICENSING LLC originally filed for both on January 17. 2014 and transferred them to Major League Soccer on February 26, 2014. The relevant filings can be seen here and here.

I have no idea what this means in regards to LAFC. If the new investor/operator group wants to use the LAFC logo above MLS already has the trademark. However, they could just sit on them and use a different logo.

I told ya

As you no doubt know by now, the Crew hosted a rebrand event last night. There the club revealed a new badge and name change. As I predicted in my previous post, the Crew is now "Columbus Crew SC". You can get all the details on the club's website.

There remains something interesting of note. Crew SC has not activated the domains (columbuscrewsc.com, columbuscrewsc.org, columbuscrewsc.us) they purchased back in July. They remained parked by GoDaddy.com. I presume they are holding onto them until brand is in full swing after the end of the season.

Alternative Theories

My previous post argued that the Crew is in fact adding SC to the end of their name for the upcoming rebrand. I hedged somewhat, but I remain convinced this is the case. I take it that the name change best explains why the Crew have acquired the new domains.

Some have wondered if there are other explanations. I thought about this while constructing the original post, but I neglected to write about why I ruled out some of these possibilities. It could be that the Crew reserved the domains without intending to use them. I can think of two reasons for this. The first is brand protection and the second is to hedge against a (future) decision.

The first theory involves a common PR tactic of buying of domain names that are related to your brand. This may be variations of your brand name, misspellings, or possible parody names. This prevents other people from securing those domains and setting up websites that benefit in some way from their relation to your brand. A nefarious case may involve spoofing a genuine website to defraud visitors.

The second theory is involves an organization anticipating a name change or a new product and reserving as many possible names. This does two things. First, it does all the legwork of acquiring the name ahead of time so that when the organization decides it has the domain in hand. Second, it prevents people from doing what I've done and inferring the name ahead of time.

I do not think either of these are the case. The reason is that Whois queries for variations of "columbuscrew" with things like "fc" or "96" turn up empty or reserved by others. Given "columbuscrewsc", these seem the most likely alternatives. Even less plausible additions like "sporting" or "real" turn up empty as well.

Here is a sample of unreserved names:

• columbuscrew96.com
• crew96.com
• columbuscrewfc.com
• columbuscrewfc.us
• columbuscrewfc.org
• crewfc.com
• realcolumbuscrew.com
• sportingcolumbus.com
• sportingcolumbuscrew.com

Here is a sample of names reserved by others:

• columbus96.com
• columbusfc.com
• realcolumbus.com

If either theory was correct, I would expect that the Crew would have reserved these domains as well.

Why "The Crew" will become "Columbus Crew SC"

*This post was updated on 8/29/14 to correct some misleading and inaccurate statements (see footnotes for details). Some typos were also fixed.

As has extensively been reported, the Crew will undergo rebranding this October. Much of the speculation has focused on a new crest/badge since reports suggest Anthony Precourt is not set on changing the name or departing from the general color scheme. Adam Jardy reports for the Dispatch that

"The new logo is expected to incorporate the Columbus skyline as well as the number 96. It will likely be circular as well. The colors and name will remain the same, but say goodbye to the three construction workers."

Though it seems that both "Columbus" and "Crew" will stay in the name some have wondered if the club will follow the trend of adding things like "FC", "Sporting", "SC", or "Real" to their name. Through some digging, I think that the rebrand will include the addition of "SC", presumably standing for "Soccer Club", to the "Columbus Crew" name.

The reason has to do with the importance of domain names. When starting a company/organization or launching a product it is important for one to check whether or not the associated domain is available. Colbert grabbing your domain with the definite article (thesarahpalinchannel.com) or Flickr dropping the "e" when it realizes someone else has the domain shows why this is important. So, if the Crew were looking to change their name it would be prudent of them to secure the appropriate domain name.

Currently the Crew owns the domain "thecrew.com". A whois search of the domain reveals it was registered for the Crew on January 4, 1996 and that the registrant is currently Thomas (TJ) Ansley¹². This search was done using Terminal on my computer, but a site like whois.net will provide the same result.

Domain Name: thecrew.com
Registry Domain ID: 1038421_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.register.com
Registrar URL: http://www.register.com
Updated Date: 1996-01-04T00:00:00-0500
Creation Date: 1996-01-04T00:00:00-0500
...
Registrant Name: Thomas Ansley
Registrant Organization: Columbus Crew
Registrant Street: One Black & Gold Blvd.
Registrant City: Columbus
Registrant State/Province: OH
Registrant Postal Code: 43211
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.6144472739
...
Registrant Email: tansley@thecrew.com
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Thomas Ansley
Admin Organization: Columbus Crew
Admin Street: One Black & Gold Blvd.
Admin City: Columbus
Admin State/Province: OH
Admin Postal Code: 43211
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.6144472739
...
Admin Email: tansley@thecrew.com


After some digging I came across a whois result that indicates that as of July 1, 2014 the Crew also owns "columbuscrewsc.us". The registration lists the Crew's Senior Director of Marketing & Promotions Arica Kress as the current registrant (from whois.net):

Domain Name:                                 COLUMBUSCREWSC.US
Domain ID:                                   D45842087-US
Sponsoring Registrar:                        GODADDY.COM, INC.
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID:                146
...
Registrant Name:                             Arica Kress
Registrant Organization:                     Columbus Crew
Registrant Address1:                         1 Black and Gold Blvd
Registrant City:                             Columbus
Registrant State/Province:                   Ohio
Registrant Postal Code:                      43211
Registrant Country:                          United States
Registrant Country Code:                     US
Registrant Phone Number:                     +1.6144472739
Registrant Email:                            akress@thecrew.com
Registrant Application Purpose:              P1
Registrant Nexus Category:                   C11
...
Name Server:                                 NS69.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server:                                 NS70.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Created by Registrar:                        GODADDY.COM, INC.
Last Updated by Registrar:                   GODADDY.COM, INC.
Domain Registration Date:                    Tue Jul 01 16:21:35 GMT 2014
Domain Expiration Date:                      Tue Jun 30 23:59:59 GMT 2015
Domain Last Updated Date:                    Tue Jul 01 16:21:35 GMT 2014


A natural question that arises is: why did the Crew secure a domain name ending in .us and not .com? Though I am not completely certain, I think they also bought both "columbuscrewsc.com" and "columbuscrewsc.org". The whois results for those domains show that they are registered to Domains By Proxy, LLC (see both on whois.net):

Domain Name: COLUMBUSCREWSC.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1865072840_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Update Date: 2014-07-01 11:21:18
Creation Date: 2014-07-01 11:21:18
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2015-07-01 11:21:18
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
...
Registrant Name: Registration Private
Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC
Registrant Street: DomainsByProxy.com
Registrant Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309
Registrant City: Scottsdale
Registrant State/Province: Arizona
Registrant Postal Code: 85260
Registrant Country: United States
Registrant Phone: +1.4806242599


Domain Name:COLUMBUSCREWSC.ORG
Domain ID: D173158527-LROR
Creation Date: 2014-07-01T16:20:52Z
Updated Date: 2014-07-01T16:20:52Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2015-07-01T16:20:52Z
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, LLC (R91-LROR)
...
Registrant Name:Registration Private
Registrant Organization:Domains By Proxy, LLC
Registrant Street: DomainsByProxy.com
Registrant City:Scottsdale
Registrant State/Province:Arizona
Registrant Postal Code:85260
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.4806242599


Domains by Proxy is a company that allows individuals to purchase domain names by proxy so that they up publicly as the owner while the actual individual or organization uses the domain. Go Daddy offers it as option when registering a domain.

I assume the Crew used this option to purchase "columbuscrewsc.com" and "columbuscrewsc.org" in order to hide the fact that the Crew actually owns the domains. The reason is that all three registrations seem to have occurred at around 11:20 am EST on July 1, 2014:

• "columbuscrewsc.us" was registered at 16:21:35 GMT, which is 11:21 am EST.
• "columbuscrewsc.com" was registered at 11:21:18 (no time zone listed).
• "columbuscrewsc.org" was registered at 16:20:52 (which I assume is GMT), which is at 11:20 EST.

Presumably, this is to help keep the rebranding efforts under wraps. Unfortunately, Kress publicly purchased the .us domain without the help of private registration³.

The fact that all three were purchased on the same day, are all currently parked by Go Daddy, and were bought the summer before launching a rebrand suggests that the "Columbus Crew" will become "Columbus Crew SC" this October.

I am left wondering if the definite article in "The Crew" is going to be dropped. Whois queries with "the" added to the beginning show that those domains are not currently owned. Also, I tried other TLDs like .net and .info which did not turn up any results. Perhaps others might find other TLDs with "columbuscrewsc" purchased on or around July 1.

<sup>1. A previous version of this post read "A whois search of the domain reveals it was registered for the Crew on January 4, 1996 by Thomas Ansley." As Matt Bernhardt pointed out to me on Twitter, TJ Ansley did not join the Crew until 2010. This makes it highly unlikely he originally registered the domain name, a fact Ansley himself confirmed. The name of the registrant was changed to him during his tenure with the Crew and has not been updated since his departure (see 2).

2. My original post glossed over what is an important distinction. The registration entry can be updated to reflect current information. For instance, the creation of the domain registration may include a registrant for the domain that then gets changed or transferred. By not keeping this in mind I incorrectly inferred that since TJ Ansley was listed as the registrant in the result of the Whois query. This also explains why, as Levi Moore points out below, the current address for the Columbus Crew was nonexistent in 1996.

3. See LarryB's comment below for the likely explanation of why this is the case.</sup>