Monthly Archives: November 2009

Fri 13th November 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Want To Make $10K Quick? All You Need To Do Is Find A Buyer For Disaster.com For $850K or More -

DD Consulting Ltd. is charity a $10,000 finder’s fee to anyone who refers a particular who buys  a company’s Internet domain, Disaster.com.

The wordless auction started Oct. 22 with a smallest seeking bid of $850,000.

It’s approaching to interpretation on Nov. 20.

The association purebred a domain name Disaster.com in 1994.

Via: thedomains.com

 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Attempted Domain Theft By Trademark Fails In WIPO: Project.me - A German company missing the landrush for the domain project.me goes out after the landrush and registers a trademark on the term in Germany and then files a WIPO complaint against the domainer that grabbed the .me domain during the landrush. Welcome to trademark abuse. So with a ton of new extensions coming on the horizon this is an important case. The three member panel found in favor of the domain holder, despite the domain being parked, with a “for sale” link, and despite the domain holder ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FreeCreditReport.com Wins 1,017 Domains in Single Arbitration - Hi, This is funny…when thid article came out a day ago: Interesting… FTC Cracking Down On The Not So Free Credit Reports Quote: The US Government and the Federal Trade Commission are cracking down on the not so free credit report services. New rules and possible legislation are currently being worked on to prevent consumers from being misled into paying for a service they can get for free. In 2003, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act was passed by Congress. This act allowed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
iPhone App Developer Loses .Me Domain Dispute - Project.me (the company) fails to capture project.me domain name. Here’s a follow up to a story back in September — iPhone App developer Project.me has lost its attempt to get the domain name Project.me through domain arbitration. After failing to acquire the domain name from its owner, the company filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization, arguing that the Project.me domain name infringed on its applied-for project.me trademark. The three ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Prank Dialer Gets Rick Rolled in Domain Name Dispute - Prank dialing services fight it out in UDRP. After starting prank dialing service PrankDial.com, Fahim Saleh was a little miffed that another site called PrankDialer.com came along. So he filed for domain arbitration against PrankDialer.com owner Trey Glauser, who also has a handful of similar domains. Saleh’s argument for trademark rights to PrankDial.com were rather weak, and the common term certainly wouldn’t hold weight against PrankDialer.com. The arbitrator ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mardi Gras Special Ends Today, WhyPark Gives Auction Details - Here are a couple news notes from Domainer Mardi Gras and WhyPark. Domainer Mardi Gras special ends today: Domainer Mardi Gras is giving away a 500 GB external hard drive to anyone who signs up to attend by midnight tonight. Registration rates are as low as $595 if you also stay at the conference hotel. This is the lowest fee you’ll ever see for attending an industry-wide domain conference. It’s a lot of fun, too. I recommend taking advantage of this offer ... read more ...
Thu 12th November 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
12,000 Auctions, 8,900 Bidders and 350,000 Bids: We Conclude Halvarez Was The Only Shill Bidder At Snapnames - When Snapnames put each user’s entire auction history into there respective Snapnames.com account last Saturday night, we went to work. We scraped all the data from every auction. We got every bid, every bidder, and organized them into a searchable database. We then computed how many auctions each bidder was involved in, how many of those auctions the bidder had placed a bid other than the initial bid (of generally $60), and computed what percentage of the auctions they won compared to the auctions ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Hypocrisy of a Kentucky Gambling Domain Seizure Hits A New Note: TwinSpires To Buy YouBet.com - The continuing saga of the Commonwealth of Kentucky seizure of 141 domain names related to online gambling took an interesting turn today. The action of Kentucky was protectionist as online betting is legal in Kentucky through Churchill Downs Incorporated, a public company with the stock symbol of CHDN, and its online betting service at TwinsSpires.com In releasing its earning yesterday the company said about its online gambling business: “””The Company’s Online Business continued to grow ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A Peek Inside a SnapNames Lawsuit - Lawyer filed claim on behalf of brother. Earlier today I talked to Santiago A. Cueto, the first lawyer to file a lawsuit against SnapNames for the insider bidding scandal. He was quick to the docket because lead plaintiff Carlos A. Cueto is his brother. While other firms were trying to find a lead plaintiff, Santiago’s brother was emailing him the details. This is an interesting case because SnapNames has already admitted wrong doing and offered to compensate ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Coming Soon: File a UDRP Domain Name Dispute for $250 - Arbitration provider wants to offer $250 expedited UDRPs. [Update: The 250 fee is actually in Euros, and is the panelist’s fee. CAC will also collect a 250 EUR fee, making the minimum fee 500 EUR]. Earlier this month I reported on WIPO’s plans to introduce a fast-track UDRP proceeding. It would cost less and be decided faster than traditional UDRPs. At the time, I predicted that WIPO’s competitors would follow suit because of venue shopping. It looks like ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hyundai Dealer Fails a Radio Test - Domain name has two critical flaws, and it literally comes out in a radio commercial. On my way home from an event last night I heard a radio commercial for Capitol Hyundai, a Hyundai dealer here in Austin. I couldn’t believe what I heard: “Visit Capitol Dash Hyundai dot com…don’t forget the dash” Wow. That’s bad. And it just goes to show how any domain with a hyphen fails the radio test. If you forget the dash, which a lot of people do, you’ll end ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Asks for Your Feedback on “Expressions of Interest” - ICANN asks for feedback on Expressions of Interest for new TLDs. As I’ve reported before, ICANN is exploring accepting “expressions of interest” for new top level domain names. This would allow applicants to put their hat in the ring for new TLDs and give the internet community an idea of the scale and complexity we’re dealing with. In principle, it sounds like a good idea. The devil will be in the details. ICANN just opened up a comment period to provide ... read more ...
Wed 11th November 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
HitWise: Bing Up 7% In October: Long Searches Up 4% - Hitwise announced today that Google accounted for 70.60% of all U.S. searches for October. Yahoo search share was 16.14% down 1% Bing.com search share rose 7% from September to 9.57%. Hitwise also found that Longer search queries, averaging searches of five to more than eight words in length, increased 3 percent between October and September 2009. Searches of eight or more words increased 4 percent. The same time period showed that shorter search queries, those averaging one to four words long, decreased ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
$25K Being Spent Today On Typo and Infringing Domains - Someone today is going to spend over $25,000 in pure typo domains. How do I know? They are all backordered at NameJet.com today at $69 per. In all around 370 domains and over $25,000 in fees. Almost no company is spared in this infringement fest. Google, Jet Blue, Royal Caribbean, Hersey’s, Yellowbook, Alltel, T Mobile, Adobe, Auto Traders, Countrywide, Cadillac, CareerBuilder, Chevron, Continental Airlines,  even Berkshire Hathaway and file sharing service LimeWire. The list goes on and on. $25K ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Appeals Court “Turns Down” Mattress.com’s Bid For Trademark As Being Too Generic - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the federal circuit rejected an appeal by 1800Mattress.com which filed an application to  trademark the term, Mattress.com, finding that the term was too generic to be trademarked. The ruling upheld a similar ruling  by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 1800Mattress argued that the only generic term for its business was “online mattress stores,” but the appellate court disagreed. “Any term that the relevant public understands ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows’ Revenues Steady, Brandable Domain Sales Growing - Tucows reports stable revenue and increase in brandable domain sales. Tucows today reported earnings of $.07 per share for the third quarter, compared to a loss of less than a penny per share in the same quarter last year. The company benefited from income from its final receipt for selling its stake in domain name registry Afilias, as well as from foreign exchange gains. Revenue held essentially steady compared to last year. On its investor conference call today, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Revenue Down 20% This Year, But Turning a Corner - Sedo posts 19.6% drop in revenue through three quarters. Sedo today reported its results for the first three quarters of 2009, facing a decline in revenue to 34.1M EUR this year compared to 42.4M EUR in the same period last year. These numbers include both sales commissions and parking revenue. But the good news is that things appear to be looking up. In its 9 month report (pdf), company management noted that the third quarter was better than the second this year, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNW Radio: Craig Rowe of WhyPark - Our first ever episode of DNW Radio. About a month ago I announced I was working on DNW Radio, a radio show that will feature domain industry leaders. Better late than never, here’s the first episode. You may recall that I’m not a huge fan of using video when you can get something across in text. The same thing goes for audio, but that’s why the solution I’m using for DNW Radio is perfect: not only can you stream the audio, you can also read a transcript. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Monthly SnapNames Auction Begins, Sedo 2 Character Auction Ends Tomorrow - One auction kicks off as another comes to a close. SnapNames’ monthly domain name auction has kicked off and will conclude next Tuesday, November 17. The monthly auctions used to last only a few days, so it looks like SnapNames is trying a different tact. The auction includes roughly 240 domain names, 77 of which have no reserve. Among the domains with no reserve are DealComparison.com, LegalFees.com, and StewMeat.com. Two no reserve auctions have received bids: ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainSponsor Sues Publisher for Parking Domains It Didn’t Own - Parking company says publisher committed fraud by parking domains it didn’t own. Oversee.net, parent company of domain parking company DomainSponsor, has filed a lawsuit (pdf) against one of its former customers. The lawsuit alleges that Simple Solutions, LLC, parked domains with DomainSponsor and represented that it owned the domain names. However, Oversee.net alleges that Simple Solutions didn’t actually own the domains, and their ownership was in dispute. DomainSponsor’s ... read more ...
Tue 10th November 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mortgage.info for $250? There’s a Small Catch. - Afilias release .info domain names. .Info registry Afilias is letting go of a number of premium domains that were originally reserved under its sunrise period. People claimed bogus rights to domains such as mortgage.info, miami.info, and Jesus.info. Now these domain names can be yours — if you have a good plan to develop them. Afilias is accepting applications for each of the domains, and will award domain names to applicants who have a solid plan to develop the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
20 Years Later, Janet Jackson Gets Rhythm Nation Domain Name - Janet Jackson wins domain name at arbitration. You can excuse Janet Jackson for not registering the RhythmNation1814.com domain name when she originally released her hit album. After all, it was 1989 when Jackson released the album with #1 hits “Miss You Much” and “Escapade”. Domain names weren’t on top of most peoples’ minds back then. Nonetheless, Jackson’s company probably should have thought to register the domain before the current registrant ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MediaWhiz Nailed for Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Online advertising company loses case and is reprimanded by arbitrator. New York based online advertising company MediaWhiz has been found guilty of attempted reverse domain name hijacking of the MediaWiz.biz domain name. MediaWhiz’s arbitration case was doomed from the start based on the date of its trademark and when the MediaWiz.biz domain was registered. The company was awarded a trademark in 2006, claiming first use in 2002. Not only was it for only a graphical ... read more ...
Mon 9th November 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
BillionaireXchange.com Launches As Luxury Auction Site Without The Luxury Of The Correct Domain - Millionaires and billionaires now have a new an place to sell and buy mega-yachts, supercars and mansions and jewelry. BillionaireXchange officially launched today. The site says it has already sold or exchanged more than $180 million in arts, antiques, commercial properties, businesses and foreclosed homes during a 10-month test. Prospective members are required to show a minimum of $2 million in verifiable net worth to join. BillionaireXchange charges seller’s a fee of 5% and said it would have ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
First Class Action Filed Against OverSee Today - A class action lawsuit was filed today in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court by an attorney who also seems to be the plaintiff. The suit was filed on behalf of lead Plaintiff Carlos A. Cueto who says he participated in online auctions for domain names at SnapNames.Com, Inc. The complaint alleges that , a former vice-president of SnapNames., Nelson Brady  secretly bid on fifty thousand domain name auctions over the past four years, driving up costs for other bidders. It is alleged that the company executive ... read more ...