Monthly Archives: November 2010

Tue 30th November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Afternic Sells $600k+ In Names; Hobbies.com Sold For $300k - Afternic.com has just released sales for the week ending November 28th totalling just over $610k. Leading the way was Hobbies.com which sold for $297,500. Below is the entire reportable list of .com sales over $2,000 reportable non .com sales over $1,000. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
HomeOwnersInsurance.com Sold for $570K - According to a press report the domain name  HomeownersInsurance.com was just purchased fro $570,000 by  HomeInsurance.com. “HomeownersInsurance.com is our most recent step towards owning the top home insurance properties out there”, said Lagomarsino. “In addition to the two top home insurance domains in the industry, we have also attained almost all of the state-specific home insurance websites such as CaliforniaHomeInsurance.com and NewYorkHomeInsurance.com.” Another huge insurance ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Godaddy Is Getting The Benefit Of A Ton Of Typo Traffic Going To WikiLeaks.com - There aren’t too many bigger stories right now than the publication of top secret documents on the site WikiLeaks. Do a Google search and you will find thousands of stories about WikiLeaks from news organizations from all around the world. The one thing you will hardly ever see in any news story is the URL of the site that is publishing this formerly top secret info. The domain that is releasing hundreds of thousands of top secret documents is the .org version. As you might guess with all the news ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Greg McNair Launches DomainAdvisors.com To “Consult On Acquisitions, Monetization and Sales” - Gregg McNair  chairman of PPX group, announced today the soft launch of its newest project and site;  DomainAdvisors.com “DomainAdvisors offers resources with the knowledge and understanding necessary to provide invaluable guidance during the entire lifecycle of a domain” “Services range from consultancy to acquisitions, to all elements of monetization and sales.” Mr. McNair called the new service: “The logical solution to the expressed needs of portfolio owners and business owners ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FMA Wins Domain Dispute for VEDA.com and It’s a Wild One - Domain goes through UDRP for a second time. Future Media Architects (FMA) has won another UDRP, this time for the generic four character domain name Veda.com. That FMA won is not a surprise, but the history of this domain name and some of the complainant’s accusations make this case more interesting. Complainant VEDA GmbH actually won a UDRP for Veda.com back in 2003. But it failed to take ownership of the domain name after it won and FMA bought the domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hobbies.com Goes from Bankrupty Auction to Aftermarket (and Triples in Price) - Hobbies.com sale provides a nice return to the seller. Afternic brokered the sale of Hobbies.com this past week for $297,500, giving the seller a nice profit. The domain name has an interesting history. It was purchased along with iToys.com in the eToys bankruptcy auction back in February 2009 for $102,000. So even if iToys.com is worthless (which it’s not), the seller tripled his money in less than two years. This makes sense, as the auction for this domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Interview with $570k Buyer of HomeownersInsurance.com - Big domain purchase made sense for buyer. It’s always interesting to get inside someone’s mind after they make a major domain name purchase. Earlier today HomeInsurance.com CEO Carlos Lagomarsino was kind enough to give me some insight into his $570,000 purchase of HomeownersInsurance.com, which was announced today. Lagomarsino is obviously an expert in the home insurance arena with his HomeInsurance.com site. He purchased HomeInsurance.com back in 2007 for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Morgan Stanley Gets “Screwed By” Trademark Dispute - Company loses challenge over derogatory domain names. Morgan Stanley has lost a challenge at National Arbitration Forum for the domain names screwedbymorganstanleysmithbarney.com and screwedbymorganstanley.com. On the surface this seems like a classic case of a gripe site. In general, you are allowed to use domain names that include trademarks if the person going to the URL will clearly know the domain name isn’t owned by the trademark holder based on the URL alone ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Level Domain Holdings Raises $7.5 Million - TLDH raises cash stockpile ahead of new top level domain name releases. Top Level Domain Holdings, which owns Minds + Machines, has conditionally raised about $7.5 million through the sale of stock. According to a release this morning: The Company intends to use the Placing proceeds to provide additional working capital and in particular, to develop the business ahead of the expected formal commencement by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ... read more ...
Mon 29th November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Belly.com Hits $50K in NameJet Bidding But It May Not Be Enough - Although the auction doesn’t close until later today,  bidding on the domain name Belly.com has already hit $50K. However the domain has not hit reserve. So far there are 3 different bidders on the domain since $34K. Personally I think $50k its a pretty high number for the domain not to have hit reserve in an auction which appeals to mostly a wholesale industry It will be interesting to see where this one winds up and if the high bidder hits reserve. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Why Frank’s DealBook.com Win is A Big Deal For All Domainers As UDRP Panel Finds “Laches” Applies - A UDRP decided this past week between the New York Times and Frank Schilling’s Name administration regarding the domain name DealBook.com may have been one of the most important decisions for domain holders, as the panel finally fund that the legal doctrine of latches can apply to domain disputes. The doctrine of laches basically means that someone has to file a timely complaint if they want to object to another parties action We have asked several times why the doctrine of Laches did not apply ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Confirms Over 200 Million Domain Names Registered - Domain registrations hit another milestone. Today VeriSign released its third quarter Domain Name Industry Brief (pdf) and confirmed something I suspected already — there are now more than 200 million domain names registered worldwide. By VeriSign’s count, there were more than 201.8 million domain names registered at the end of September, an increase of 3.8 million over the end of June. (The company must have revised its June number up, as it previously reported ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Olympics Threaten to Sue ICANN. Who Missed a Meeting? - Olympics say they’ll sue ICANN, but they were supposed to meet with ICANN earlier this year to hash our their differences. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has again informed ICANN that it will file a lawsuit if its trademarks are not added to a restrictions list for new domain names and if other protections aren’t instituted. Back in April 2009 the IOC first threatened to sue ICANN over the introduction of new top level domain names. In March of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Good and Bad of Government Domain Seizures - They serve a purpose but could potentially splinter the web. Over the long holiday weekend the U.S. government seized a number of domain names that were allegedly being used for piracy. Both Michael Berkens and Elliot Silver have given their thoughts on the seizures. They had somewhat different opinions. And I agree with both. I tend to agree with Elliot that there’s not much for the typical domain name owner to worry about. If you’re not doing anything illegal ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marksmen Gets Into Domain Sales Business - Company known for acquisitions starts pushing domain names for sale. Intellectual Property firm Marksmen is starting to play both sides of the field. The company has long been known in the domain name industry as a stealth domain name acquisition company. It works on behalf of large companies “who want to keep their identity and costs on the down low.” Now the company is getting into the sales side as well, launching a site called Name Quiver. The company is ... read more ...
Sun 28th November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Are Domain Leasing and Payment Plans Dead In The Wake Of Domain Seizures? - Now that the federal government has gone through its second round of domain seizures, the 1st being in June of this year, the question becomes can domain holders lease or finance the purchase of domains anymore? Over the years we have leased domains, some with an option to purchase and others through a straight lease. Of course we have a written lease agreement we use that attempts to protect us and our domain. The agreement provides that the site won’t be used for anything illegal, will comply ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domaining.com To Launch New Domain Escrow Service - New escrow service coming in December. Cybertonic, the company behind Domaining.com, is readying a new domain name escrow service at eCOP.com. The service appears to be only for domain names sold for $5,000 or less and will charge a flat $25 fee. eCOP will not take ownership of the domain name and will only be an intermediary to hold the money until the domain name is transferred. Focusing only on smaller domain name transactions is an interesting idea and I’ll ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Art World Gets Title Insurance, Are Domain Names Next? - You can insure the title of art, but domain names lag behind. I’ve written numerous times about the potential of domain name title insurance. I’ve argued it’s not a profitable product to offer. Although I still feel that way, I was surprised to see an article in the latest Economist about title insurance for art. The article discusses Blanchisseuses souffrant des dents by Edgar Degas, which Sotheby’s listed for sale in an auction. Someone viewing the ... read more ...
Sat 27th November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
AVN Reports Over 70 Domains Have Been Seized By Homeland Security - The other day we wrote about 9 domain names that were seized by the HomeLand Security Department based on selling or helping the transfer of copyrighted material or selling allegedly fake designer goods Now according to AVN the number of seized domains and sites appear to be closer to 70 than to 9. The seizures which all took place by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)which is part of the Homeland Security Department. Looks like many of these additional domains were selling products rather ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
HostGator: 10% Raises, No Longer for Sale, and Taking on GoDaddy - Web host plans for big growth. Web hosting company HostGator has published excerpts of founder Brent Oxley’s recent email to employees. I found it interesting on a number of fronts. 1. The company is giving its Houston employees a 10% raise immediately. This sounds like what Google recently did. This 10% is on top of any usual raises. 2. HostGator is no longer for sale. Oxley said he had an end-of-year deadline to sell the company and he’s taking it off ... read more ...
Fri 26th November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ThePirateBay.org Appeal Verdict Is In: Less Jail Time; Much More In Fines - A year ago April, the founders of thePirateBay.org were found guilty of copyright infringement and sentenced to jail. Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi and Carl Lundstroem were given jail sentences of one year each by a Stockholm district court and were ordered to to pay compensation and damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6 million). Well they appealed the verdict and the verdict is in. The Swedish Appeal Court has announced its decision: Peter Sunde’s sentence was reduced ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
While You Were Eating Your Turkey, Homeland Security Was Seizing 9 Domains - Several sources are reporting that Homeland Security has seized domain names associated with peer-to-peer file sharing sites and those that allegedly deal in counterfeit goods. The domain was seized without any prior notification to the domain owner and without going through the court system. The seizures were apparently conducted by a  branch of Homeland Security known as ICE. Some of the seized domains include one that was a “search engine” type of site called Torrent-Finder.com, several were ... read more ...
Thu 25th November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
OpenDns Vs. Verizon: Now The Hijackers Of Traffic Are Getting Their Traffic Hijacked By Verizon - It wasn’t long ago that I wrote about OpenDns and how they were blocking parked domains pages from being served and was replacing them with their own page serving up ads for which they, not the domain owners were getting paid for. Now the shoe is on the other foot as OpenDns is complaining about Verizon, which is now blocking OpenDNS ad pages and serving up Verizon’s ad pages. This is a version of a Cookie war, call it a landing page war, where company is blocking one parked page in favor of ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Facebook is Thankful To The Trademark Office As They Get Awarded A Trademark On “Face” - According to TechCrunch.com Facebook.com has been awarded a trademark on the word “Face”. The trademark is for: “usages in “Telecommunication services, namely, providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users in the field of general interest and concerning social and entertainment subject matter, none primarily featuring or relating to motoring or to cars.” We have reported on Facebook is taking legal action for trademark infringement  ... read more ...