Anyone who was around ten years old or older in 1983 knows who John Bertrand is.  Along with the crew of Australia II he stopped the nation whilst we watched or listened to his magnificent efforts in winning the Americas Cup.  The first time the cup had been taken away from the Americans in over 100 years.

It was a mammoth effort,  and ever since,  the John Bertrand name (Personal Brand) has been associated with sailing.  I’m sure over the years sponsors have paid John mega dollars for him to be associated with their products and brand.

But some smart fellow has the use of the John Bertrand brand for a few dollars each year,  not the thousands of dollars conventional sponsors would pay.

He did this by registering the domain name JohnBertrand.com and put up a website at www.johnbertrand.com but the clever part is the website sells sailing equipment.

I’m obviously assuming that the person who owns the domain is not the famous John Bertrand, I have no way of knowing,  but the website doesn’t look classy enough to be owned by the John Bertrand, also a whois domain search shows it’s registered to someone in the U.S.

I  also assume the owner of the website is making money from the John Bertrand brand because it’s been online several years.

Be aware,  the owner of the domain may also be called John Bertram and just got lucky, there’s no law that I am aware of stops this kind of marketing, it’s a case of first come first served with domain registration.

So the moral of this story is to register your domain name if  it’s still available because it would be a crying shame to win an Americas Cup and have someone else profit from your great deeds.