Raiders owner Mark Davis had the foresight in 1998 to squat on the LasVegasRaiders.com domain name. Davis did not do the same regarding the trademark rights to his team’s eventual new name. In part because he didn’t have to
Via the Associated Press, several people unaffiliated to the Raiders have filed applications for federal rights to the phrase. The cost for doing so is only $275, but the upside could be much more significant than that.
The upside is highly unlikely, however. At some point, the Raiders will make their move to secure the obvious trademark rights that they own. And those who have forked over $275 will have nothing to show for their roll of the dice.
It wouldn’t have been so simple if someone else had obtained the rights to LasVegasRaiders.com. The Dallas Cowboys still don’t own the rights to Cowboys.com, a domain for which they declined to pay $275,000 several years ago and that was, as of 2012, a male dating site.
It’s currently available, at a minimum offer of $500,000. LasVegasRaiders.com would likely fetch that kind of payment now, if Davis hadn’t spent the $10 or so to get the name back when anyone could have gotten it.