How to protect an athlete’s online presence: Securing domain names
Not too long ago, the last thought on a high school athlete’s mind was probably making money off who they are. The greenlight for NIL at the college level was in its infancy, and unbeknownst to the athletic community, high school athletes were going to follow closely behind.
Fast-forward nearly a year later to a vastly different environment. A new reality is setting in for these young athletes as multiple state high school athletic associations and state lawmakers embrace NIL.
Making money can be exciting, but before athletes plunge into any licensing, endorsement or sponsorship deals, they will want to protect their brand so they have control over how it is represented and commercialized as they grow.
Our NIL Playbook Course guides student-athletes, their coaches and families through the various compliance, legal, financial and branding protections they need to be aware of before accepting any NIL deals.
One of the many topics we highlight in this course is the importance of protecting an athlete’s intellectual property such as their own name, nicknames, brand name, logos, slogans and unique content they create.
Some ways a student-athlete can prevent others from using their intellectual property without their permission include copyrights and trademarks. They will eventually reach a point where they may also want to create a website to market their brand and build their narrative.
Even if this website is not the first thing on their to-do list, we encourage them to at least secure possible website domain names, so no other business purchases ownership to them.
A domain name is a digital address to a website. It is the wording that comes after the “www.” in a website or the “@” symbol in an email title. For example, our domain name is “ecckersports.com.” Other recognizable domain names include “google.com” and “espn.com.”
As an athlete builds a following and grows in popularity, they will want to have full control over the message they put out to people. If another individual or business reserves it first, they may lose some of that control. The fight to get it back could become costly.
The good news is that in 1999, lawmakers passed the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, which prevents cybersquatters, individuals or companies that register domain names in bad faith, from profiting off domain names they registered in order to sell it back to owners of a trademark. This is another reason why registering trademarks and copyrights is so important.
An athlete can purchase a domain name through several Domain Name Services. Some common and trusted domain registrars include:
Keep in mind that purchasing a domain name does not mean an athlete has a website. They own the name. If they plan to build a website, it might be easier to purchase the domain from a service that also has website-building capabilities.
Sites like squarespace.com, wordpress.com, and wix.com are user-friendly and do not require any background in coding or web design.
If this is not important to an athlete right now, it is possible to transfer a domain purchased on one site to another, it just takes more time and work. A student-athlete will need to do their research to figure out the best fit for them depending on their website plans.
