In the interconnected digital era we live in, brand protection is more important than ever. This holds especially true when your brand is a generic term, one with over 1,500 trademark claims in the U.S. alone. The only way to compound that importance is when your brand and logo happens to be one of the most recognizable on the planet.

All of these combined factors didn’t seem to add up in Jerry Jones’ or the Dallas Cowboys‘ heads, as they let a monumental opportunity to lock up the exact match .com of their football squad slip away over what amounted to pennies in the grand scheme of things. Now the Dallas Cowboys must face the consequences of having millions of individuals worldwide exposed to a product that is not representative of their brand (in this case, much the opposite).