Pizza Hut Fails to Secure Domain Names as Part of Its Rebranding Effort

Pizza Hut decided to rebrand as “Pasta Hut” in the United Kingdom.  Unfortunately, the marketing geniuses behind the move failed to register the most obvious domain names related to the new brand, including pastahut.com, pastahut.net or pastahut.info.  Pizza Hut did register pastahut.co.uk and pasta-hut.co.uk.  A spokesperson for Pizza Hut offered the feeble response (no doubt trying to cover their collective butts on this major oversight) with the following quote:

But a Pasta Hut spokeswoman said the company had no interest in any of the web addresses that had already been bought. "We own Pastahut.co.uk and Pasta-hut.co.uk. There is no reason why we would want any of the others," she said.

Companies that fail to protect their on-line brands and trademarks will pay a heavy price later.  They will be either forced to purchase domains at an exorbitant price or go without all of the traffic which will no doubt be diverted to their competitors.