Monthly Archives: July 2010

Tue 6th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
I Had a Nightmare About New Top Level Domain Names - I need a real vacation. You’d think a holiday weekend would help me relax and forget about domain names. Apparently not. Last night I had a dream about new top level domain names. It went something like this… My phone started ringing in the middle of the night, and people were leaving nasty messages for me. “I went to your web site and it didn’t have the information. Thanks for wasting my time!” “Your web site is a scam!” “I’m going to report ... read more ...
Mon 5th July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
“Why we Typosquatted & Why It Should Be Legal” - Back In April of this year, we wrote about a guy named Alf Temme, who was in that report sued by Dell for $2.4 Million for typosquatting. In a guest post to SeattlePI.com, Mr. Temme described why he started typo squatting, he business plan he built around it and how it all came tumbling down due to the trademark laws, The Lanham Act and the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). You also might remember that Mr. Temme owns the company that sells the Romfab ROM exercise machine for over ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.TV Investors Take Note, Tuvalu Is Not Happy With The Deal They Have With Verisign - According to Radio New Zealand International blog, the country of Tuvlau which owns the rights to the .TV ccTLD, is not happy with the deal it has with Verisign. According to the Finance Minister of Tuvalu’s, Lotoala Metia says  the country isn’t getting enough money from the US company which bought the dot-tv internet domain off it. As you know the .TV registry is operated by DotTv, a VeriSign company, which pays Tuvalu about $2 million US dollars a year for use of the name. The Minister ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Like Domains, Toll Free Numbers Going Through Expansion - Another toll free prefix will be released this fall. Top level domain names aren’t the only identifier resource being expanded in coming years. Later this year the first toll free number prefix since 2000 will be released: 855. The numbers will be released in October. Previous releases after 800 include 888 in 1996, 877 numbers in 1998 and 866 numbers in 2000. Similar to top level domain names, there are people both for and against the release of the numbers. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Charter Communications Loses Claim for “Charter Business” - Company loses fight for domain name. Cable and communications giant Charter Communications has lost a dispute over the domain name CharterBusiness.com. The company claimed rights to the domain name based on a number of trademarks that were filed or first used in business after the domain name was registered, and that the parked page at CharterBusiness.com once showed a few links related to Charter Communications. The panel decided that “Charter Business” is a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Understanding Defensiveness in a Domain Name Industry - Why are so many companies always in attack mode, and get defensive when criticized? It’s because they’re weak. In all my years in the domain name industry, I’ve discovered there are two distinct types of service providers. 1. Get very defensive whenever someone critiques their product and spend much of their time criticizing their competition. 2. Welcome all feedback and focus on improving their own products rather than criticizing the competition. Think ... read more ...
Sun 4th July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
“I Pay 58% Tax & I’m Proud & Happy To Do So” - One of the great things about traveling is the opportunity to meet people that live and work in different parts of the world. On our recent trip to Brussels for the ICANN meeting, we do what we always do, talk to the local shop owners, taxi drivers, people that are sitting next to you in restaurants,  about world events, their country, their way of life. We chatted with one middle aged Gentleman for a few hours.  He grew up and lived in Brussels his whole life. Soon the subject of our discussion ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.US Domain Name Auction Off to Strong Start - Moniker times auction with Independence Day, and it’s off to a great start. What better domain name topic to write about on July 4 than .us? Moniker’s .us domain name auction at SnapNames is off to a strong start with 11 of the 86 domain names already receiving bids. The auction runs through July 8. Compared to many recent Moniker auctions, this one would sell a higher percentage of domains even if it closed today. The main reason for the strong start is a good ... read more ...
Fri 2nd July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
A Bang On Trademarked Term Adderall Sells For $4,800 on NameJet.com - You wouldn’t have to go far to find someone who has heard of the Attention Deficit Disorder drug Adderall, usually prescribed for children, but this domain just sold on NameJet.com yesterday for $4,800. Of course the manufacturer of the drug has a trademark registered on the product. Moreover, certainly over the last year or two, no online “business” has been under attack more than the online pharmacy’s, making this domain a potential double whammy in liability. I wouldn’t touch it. I other ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Absolut Vodka Getting Into a Escort Business? - Vodka purveyor gets AbsolutEscort.com domain name. Hey, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. But VS Vin Sprit AB, distributor of Absolut Vodka, just won a domain name arbitration case for AbsolutEscorts.com. Why else would they want this domain name other than to expand into another vice industry? Oh, I suppose it could have to do with this: The Complainant has not authorized the Respondent’s use of the mark in any way and would not license the mark for ... read more ...
 
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is Sex.com Really a World’s Most Valuable Domain Name? - Sex.com is worth a lot, but other domain names might be worth more. The headlines have been screaming about Sex.com the past 24 hours, saying that the world’s most valuable domain name is for sale. But is it? Is Sex.com the most valuable domain name (by the domain itself) in the year 2010? Ask me five or ten years ago and I’d say “of course”. But now things have changed. I’m not an expert on online adult entertainment. Michael Berkens knows quite a bit ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest NYC Should Draw a Big Crowd - Next month’s one day conference will be big; October’s will be even bigger. It’s technically only a one day event, but I suspect next month’s DOMAINfest Power Networking Day in New York City will draw a very sizable crowd. The event is being held right after Affiliate Summit, and both events are cross promoting each other. This, along with being in New York City, should result in big numbers. I caught up with Oversee.net Head of Marketing Aaron Kvitek yesterday ... read more ...
Thu 1st July 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Business Week Covers .XXX: “The Man Who Would Be The Dot-XXX King” - Bloomberg/BusinessWeek just published a story about the tentative approval of .XXX by ICANN and the CEO of the ICM registry, Stuart Lawley entitled “The Man Who Would Be The Dot-XXX King“. You will have to read the whole story which you can find here, but here are a couple of the more interesting points; Mr. Lawley is a very wealthy guy. According to the article he was named by the London Sunday Times as one of the richest 1,000 people in England, having taken an ISP public. As part of the .xxx ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Feds Seize 9 Domains For Copyright Infringement, But Based On What Law? - According to the Wall Street Journal, federal authorities seized 9 domain names of sites that were offering pirated movies. The nine domain names were registered using U.S.-based registrars, allowing authorities to take control of their site addresses. Some of the sites themselves were  run on computers based in the U.S, in Colorado, Florida and Illinois, but others used computers based in Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K. and the Czech Republic. The domain names seized according to the report ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
How Much Is XXX.Com Worth Now? We Are About To Find Out, As It Hits The Auction Block At DomainFest - Certainly nothing has been in the domain news, even the general news much more in the past few days than the tenative approval of the .XXX extension by ICANN. Beyond the ICM registry who owns the .XXX TLD, the biggest other beneficiary very well maybe the owner of XXX.com. Now you will have the chance to be that guy, the owner of XXX.com because that domain is hitting the auction block at Domainfest New York on August 18th. The reserve price is stated to be in excess of $5 Million Dollars. No doubt ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yahoo-Microsoft Ad Transition is Going to be a Cluster… - As we get closer to advertising transition, scope of changes become apparent. We’re getting nearer to D-Day, when the Yahoo and Microsoft ad deal starts to affect advertisers on the former’s platform. Here’s just one example of the headaches ahead for Yahoo advertisers. Today the company sent out an email telling all of its advertisers that it will need to cut their ad headline length to no more than 25 characters. Yahoo currently allows 40. This means that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sex.com Now Officially for Sale during Sedo - Storied domain name now available at domain broker. It’s been in the works for a while, and I understand an agreement was signed a few weeks ago, but today Sedo announced that Sex.com is up for sale. It will be sold along with two trademarks. As of now it looks like Sedo is treating this as a broker deal. I suspect there’s a (high) asking price, and Sedo is trying to gauge interest. If multiple buyers are interested I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sort ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Local.com Buys Octane360 for Up to $11 Million - Company powered by geo domains is acquired. I got a “we should catch up” email from Octane360 CEO Adam Rioux last night. Then this morning I see this – he just sold his company for $5 million in cash and stock plus an earnout of $5.9 million. My first thought: that was fast. My second thought: I’m not too surprised. I’ve been singing the praises of Octane360’s business model for a while, and talking about what it can do for owners of localized domain ... read more ...