Sony pictures television (SPT) recently launched a joint venture with CSS (Chicken soup for the soul) entertainment, with an online streaming business called Crackle Plus, which will also host popcornflix and other similar media-streaming ventures. It is basically a new home for Crackle, the ad-supported free video streaming service owned by Sony Pictures.
The only problem is, that the domain crackleplus.com is registered in the name of a Pakistani resident Muhammad Abdullah. Abdullah registered it on his name in October 2017.
He bought this name because he wanted to start his own entertainment website and due to whatever reason, he has quoted a price of $10,000 which the huge entertainment company is reluctant to pay.
Sony has also tried to negotiate with Abdullah via DomainAgents brokers, but Abdullah is not to be deterred. He is well aware that Sony owns Crackle and is very much interested in the name Crackle Plus, he said adamantly that he won’t take a penny less than $10,000.
Abdullah also owns a few other websites and works as an SEO expert in an Islamabad based firm. What we don’t understand here is why is SPT is hesitant in paying an amount that is not very significant for a huge entertainment company.
Another complication in the matter is that SPT does not own the majority of Crackle’s rights any longer. There are also signs that Sony wants to exit the AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) business. On the other hand, it is clear that CSS is willing to pay great amounts to get original content for Crackle Plus.
We’ll have to wait to see how it pans out.
They will probably change the plus to something else.
Sony will end up paying him 100 or 200$ (or whatever original payment he made to buy the website) as they will sue the domain registration company or the owner himself as they Crackle name trademark registered.
our pakistani bro cannot bear a month of litigation so he better take whatever Sony is offering him now.
Nope. It is impossible now cause the name is registered on his name since 2017. The parent company has a chance to sue but they missed it. 10k is not that huge that a company like Sony will go for any legal action
Sony has registered “sonycrackle.com” alternatively. :-P
For Pakistanis, they do not want to offer a single penny…
Sony should pay Pakistani Muhammad Abdullah because he owns domain.