It was quite a few months the rumour about Berlusconi’s, his empire and the “Bunga Bunga” parties was ceased, but it was just a temporary pause.
As of today the television giant operating in Italy has a new record: they have lost their domain name because they forget to renew it.
A big lack from the Cologno Monzese company and for Berlusconi itself, which has seen their domain reassigned to a merchant selling backup solutions in Delaware (US).
The claim with no hope
The Italian giant tried to open a case at WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization - alleging bad faith in domain name registration. Although the name “mediaset” seems to be worldwide registered, the WIPO didn’t accept the claim as the domain has been regularly purchased in an auction and because it’s a joint of two keywords “media” and “set” that are generic and normally belongs to the English dictionary.
Case closed for the domain, which is now gone. Probably not for the marketing or IT department of the Italian giant, which I’m sure, they will have quite a few troubles in the next months because clearly there is somebody in the company that doesn’t understand how important is to preserve the online brand identity.
The domain with the wrong redirect
Same kind of troubles the IT department of the Admiral Group may have in the closest future if they continue to don’t notice their HTTPS site is still pointing for some reason to the other branded web site “Diamond”, an insurance designed for young women drivers.
Quite recently in UK, about March last year, the European commission ruled about the impossibility for insurer to make price discrimination beyond sex. So, it’s probably a year that the Admiral secure site is pointing to the wrong version. Probably this is not a major issue, but what’s the reason of this?
It’s economically profitable for someone? No, I don’t think so. Is there a marketing reason? Again no, especially considering the site is not working as it should.
Is it a matter of company bureaucracy? Again, EU ruled and it doesn’t take a year to make a proper redirect. If that would be the case, certainly someone on the management board should reconsider how effective their IT department is.
So, it would probably be better for Admiral to implement a proper redirect even if they are not really using their secure site.