Monthly Archives: March 2010

Mon 8th March 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Reevaluating New Top Level Domain Names - A look back at my position on new TLDs, 9 months later. Last May I wrote an editorial titled “Why I’m opposed to new top level domains”. I outlined six reasons that I didn’t like the current proposal for new top level domain names. Nine months later, I still have many of those same concerns. But I’m also looking forward to the introduction of new top level domain names. Look, everyone who’s pushing for new TLDs is in it for the money. And there’s ... read more ...
Sun 7th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Google AdWords Trademark Case Dropped After The Plaintiff Rescuecom Gets Sued For Doing The Same Thing - This week Resuecom which sued Google for selling ads under its trademarked keywords 6 years ago simply dropped the case. Back in April 2009 we wrote about how the appeals court ruled against Google in favor of Resuecom. At the time we wrote: “””The 2nd Circuit Federal Court of Appeals ruled against Google in a trademark lawsuit stemming from AdWords ads, saying that allowing a trademark term to trigger a search ad is a “use in commerce”, within the meaning of federal trademark laws. “”Google ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Peculiar UDRPs: Recent.net, Than.net, They.net - UDRP filing goes after three highly generic .net domain names. Here’s a domain name dispute filing that must be complicated: someone has filed a UDRP for Recent.net, Than.net, and They.net. The dispute was filed with National Arbitration Forum, which does not disclose the complainant’s identity until a decision is rendered. On the face of it, these seem like very generic domain names. But when you dig into the whois history, you notice similarities with all ... read more ...
Sat 6th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Who Dat? That Who Owns The Rights To It? NFL, WhoDat? Inc, WhoDat.com Or Nobody - As reported by NewOrleans.com a lawsuit was filed yesterday in the United States District Court in East Baton Rouge Parish against the NFL the Saints.  The suit alleges 16 counts of misconduct, including Breach of Contract, Deceptive Advertising, Trademark Infringement and Dilution, Negligence, Conspiracy, and Fraud. The company that filed the suit is a Louisiana company Who Dat, Inc., owned by brothers Sal and Steve Monistere, which says they hold the Louisiana and common law trademarks to the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Wired.com Interviews ICANN’s Beckstrom, & Covers The New gTLD’s, Trademarks & More - A new article published today by Wired.com entitled: Domain Name Czar Seeks .OnlineUnity interview Rob Beckstrom CEO of ICANN discusses the proposed gTLD’s and various ICANN and domain issues. My favorite quote from the article by Beckstrom is in response to the issue about the new gTLD’s and trademark holders complaints that they will have to spend too much to buy domain names in each of the new TLDs. Beckstrom says its not ICANN’s job to pre-emptively police trademarks. “Go enforce your ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yes, Multiple Top Level Domain Names Add to Confusion - Duh. More TLDs cause confusion. Perhaps it’s outweighed by the innovation? This morning I read Wired’s article on ICANN, which discusses new top level domain names. It quotes David Farber saying “I don’t think that [adding new TLDs] creates innovation. I think that creates rapid confusion.” Antony Van Couvering with new TLD service provider Minds + Machines, responded in the comments: There’s no evidence whatever that people will be confused by ... read more ...
Fri 5th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO Takes 13 Year Old Domain Sporto.com: Saying “UDRP Does Not Operate On A Strict Doctrine of Precedent - In a WIPO decision a sole panelist took away a domain registered by the domain holder in 1997, that’s 13 years ago. The domain at issue is sporto.com Over the years, the domain has been used many different ways including as a developed site but also for a period of time as a parked page. This case again turned on the bad faith issue. The policy on bad faith is pretty clearly written: “””C. Registered and Used in Bad Faith “”Paragraph 4(a)(iii) of the Policy reads as follows: “You are ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
11 Ways to Build Long Term Traffic to Your Blog - How to build repeat traffic to your blog. I originally started writing this post as ways to get more traffic to your domain name blog. But it really applies to any type of blog. The message is that you need to think about growing your blog traffic over the long term, and that requires trust. I often see people try to get ‘quick hits’ of traffic by misleading their readers. But getting long term traffic involves building trust with your readers. Here are ten ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
More Headaches for ICANN Meeting in Nariobi, Kenya - Heads of state from six African countries to hold meeting at same venue during ICANN meeting. As if security threats and big name companies backing out of next week’s ICANN meeting in Nairobi weren’t enough, attendees to the meeting are about to face another big headache. Nick Tomasso, General Manager, Meetings and Conferences for ICANN has just posted an update that the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) will be holding a meeting at the same venue ... read more ...
Thu 4th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
SnapNames Announces Domains For Its Mar Showcase Auction Including ScreenSavers.com - SnapNames.com is holding its March Showcase Auction featuring Entertainment Sports domains from March 9th-March 16th and just released the domains up for bid. We will release our top picks a couple of days before the auction closes although we couldn’t help but see ScreenSavers.com sitting there at $250k+ As usual reserve prices are stated in ranges: Domain Name Opening Bid/Range 3dConsoles.net $201 – $500 3GConnect.com $1001 – $2500 5CardStud.com $5,001 – $10,000 5rl.com No Reserve 65ft.com $201 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO Panel Allows FMA To Keep Domain Despite Trademark & Parking - Well in an interesting WIPO decision, a sole panelist rejected a trademark holders claim even though they found the domain at issue, finaza.com “was confusingly similar to a mark in which Complainants have rights” and even through the domain was parked for some time. “””The Panel is cognizant of other decisions (including those of this Panel) finding that “parking” a web site with a service that provides links to third party sites, including those that compete with complainants is not ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
LuxuryNames.com Auction Closing on SnapNames.com during 3:15pm EST - Just as a reminder the LuxuryNames.com auction on Snapnames.com is closing at just a few hours at 3:15pm EST in accordance with snapnames normally closing rules. As of noon there are 3 domains with bids that have met reserve Graduatedegrees.org $2,600 Graduatedegrees.org $2,600 dartmouthhotels.com $525 Here is the list of domains for sale with reserve prices: Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
The Domain Qant.as Sells For $1.3 Million Dollars? The Owner Says It Doesn’t Violate Trademark Law - The theaustralian.com.au is reporting that domain name Qant.as, (as in Qantas airlines) sold for a whopping $1.35 million dollars. The .As extension is the ccTLD of American Samoa and I’m willing to go out on a limb and say if true, its a record setting sale. The owner of the domain, Dominic Holland said he held a private auction for the domain this week and futher says bidding started at $1M and finished at $1.35M, meaning there had to be at least 2 bidders in the auction and according to Mr. ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
1 Offer, 1 Counter & Its Over: Network Solutions “Certified Offer”: Do They Really Charge For That Crap? - Over the years I have received about 50 “Certified Offers” From Network Solutions. If your not familiar with the product, Network Solutions offers a method for buyers to contact buyers and to make an offer a domain. For the privilege the “buyer” has to pay NSI $19.95 PLUS plus 5% of the final agreed upon price paid by the buyer in the case of any offer under $25K and for offers over $25K the buyer has to pay $69 plus 5%. Of the 50 offers or so I’ve received from NSI under this service almost ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Wants Patent for Selling Business Cards with Domain Names - Company files patent application for cross-selling business cards based on registrant information. The Go Daddy Group, parent company of domain name registrar GoDaddy, has filed two patent applications related to ordering business cards along with a domain name registration. U.S. patent applications 12/202919 (pdf) and 12/202956 (pdf) describe a method of using information collected during the domain name registration process to help generate — and cross-sell ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
L’Oreal Buys Makeup.com for 7 Figures - Makeup giant buys category killer domain name Makeup.com. L’Oreal has purchased the domain name and web site Makeup.com, and one of the bidders in an auction for the domain name tells us it was for seven figures. Makeup.com has an interesting history. The domain name was owned by Communicate.com — now Live Current Media — earlier this decade before the company struck a deal to sell the domain to Manhattan Assets Corp along with Automobile.com, Exercise.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Lawyer: SnapNames Class Action Headed to State Court - Lawyers plan to take case to state court. The lawyers that filed a lawsuit in federal district court against SnapNames and Oversee.net over the ‘Halvarez’ scandal and later dismissed the case say it’s not over yet. “It was really just a procedural move,” said Michael Aschenbrener, lead attorney on the case for Edelson McGuire LLC, commenting on why the case was dismissed. Aschenbrener said they might have an easier time filing the case in state court. ... read more ...
Wed 3rd March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Publishes Its Own SEO Report Card & Gives Itself Some Failing Grades - Google just released its own SEO Report Card. In a 49 page report it rates the search engine optimization (SEO) on its various properties including the Google search home page and gives itself a failing grade in a number of categories. One of the biggest areas of failure for is in “search result presentation,” where Google scored itself with a score of  33 out of 100 or lower in three different categories. Here is how the report is describe by Google, you should check out the full report: “”How ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Can The Former President Of Monster.com Save The .Jobs Extension (Yes It Already Exists) - Bill Warren the former President of  Monster.com, has big plans for the .jobs extension. No this is not one the new proposed gTLD’s. The extension already exists. Employ Media LLC was granted the right to manage the .job registry all the way back in April of 2005. You can currently register a .jobs domain for $120 at Godaddy. Warren hopes to launch the DirectEmployers Association, a group formed by more than 500 large companies. Warren is executive director. The association’s plan calls for ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
You Don’t Think We Live In The Internet Age: Topeka Changes Its Name To Google, Kansas - At 79,  doesn’t exactly understand the Internet boom. The Topeka, Kansas, mayor has an e-mail account, he said, but his assistants take care of most of his online communications and tend to search the Web for him. The mayor of Topeka, Kansas Bill Bunten, signed a formal proclamation Monday, changing the domain of his city from Topeka, Kansas to Google, Kansas. Ok so before the owner of Topeka.com has a stroke, the name change is only last through the month of March. What’s the incentive? Google’s ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DomainFest Coming To Prague In October - DomainSponsor, just announced that it will hold a its first Domainfest show outside of the United States on  Wednesday and Thursday, October 6 and 7, 2010 at the landmark Hotel Intercontinental, Prague, Czech Republic. Included in the show will be a Moniker auction. Here are some details from the press release: “The October meeting will continue DOMAINfest’s focus on increasing the value of Internet real estate and will offer a rich setting for extensive networking involving topics relevant ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
How Much Traffic Can a .Info Site Lose To A .Com? 27,000 Visitors In 1 Day - Dominers have discussed the issue for years. What is the bleed over from a an advertised extension other than .com to the .com due to the fact that users often default to a .com since its the best known extension. Now I know for sure. 27,000 visitors. On a sleepy Sunday morning, the last day of the winter Olympic games,  the CBS morning show did a 5 minute piece on the Move Your Money movement highlighting MoveYourMoney.info (you can watch the piece on that site) If your not familiar with this movement, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Coming Mar 15: File a UDRP for 500 EUR - Domain name arbitration company offers lower fees for “simple” cases. Czech Arbitration Court, one of the providers of arbitration services under Uniform domain-name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), is slashing fees to 500 EUR per case effective March 15 for certain cases. The 500 EUR fee will apply only in cases where the respondent does not reply to the complaint, and in which “there is no need for Panellists to produce a detailed decision”. If the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How Domain Name Monetization is Changing - A look at where we’re headed for domain monetization. It’s no secret that the traditional form of domain name monetization — PPC parking — has seen a decline over the past three years. Nonetheless, this form of monetization is still the best option for most domain names. Certain segments of domain names can do better through other monetization channels, however. There are basically two different efforts going on in the evolution of domain monetization: ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Edelman: Domainers Cause Harm, Add Little Value - Author of typosquatting report says domainers add little value, and questions the right to register large numbers of domain names. Cyber intelligence company Cyveillance has interviewed Benjamin Edelman, one of the authors of a recent report on typosquatting, and he has this to say about domainers: they cause harm and add little genuine value. It should be pointed out that Edelman is co-counsel in a lawsuit against Google and several other industry players over typosquatting. In ... read more ...