Monthly Archives: December 2010

Tue 7th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Michael Berkens and Howard Neu Team Up to Save Domain Name - Michael Berkens’ Worldwide Media, Inc., has successfully defended its CareFreeHomes.com domain name in a UDRP with the help of attorney Howard Neu. Complainant CareFree Homes II, L.P. doesn’t have a registered trademark for “CareFree Homes”, but it argued common law rights. The argument by the El Paso, Texas home builder was fairly weak. Summarizing the home builder’s failure to show any sort of common law mark, the panel wrote: The evidence offered by ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XXX Will Have Three Sunrise Periods - by Kevin Murphy Trademark holders are to get new rights if and when the porn-only .xxx domain launches. ICM Registry, which hopes to get its .xxx application approved by ICANN this week, plans to have not one but three sunrise periods when it opens up next year. The first period would allow owners of porn-related trademarks to claim their .xxx domain names and use them as normal, ICM representatives said here at ICANN’s public meeting in Cartagena, Colombia. But ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Med and .Give May Become New Top Level Domain Names - Company files trademark applications related to new top level domain names. With the possibility of new top level domain name applications opening up early next year, a New Jersey company appears to be expanding its plans to introduce new TLDs. Dot One, Inc., has filed three trademark applications over the past month for top level domain names. The company has filed applications for “Dot One”, “Dot Med”, and “Dot Give”. I’ve found very little information ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Files Trademark Applications for New “V” Logo - .Com and .Net registry may be looking to remake its image. VeriSign has filed a slew of trademark applications for “V” this week. But before you flip out, the company isn’t trying to trademark the letter itself. Instead, it appears the company is giving its stylized “v” logo a new look. The six related trademark applications feature a number of styles, but all feature a stylized letter V with part of the right side missing, creating a diamond shape protruding ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy’s 2011 Super Bowl Ad Will Promote .Co - by Kevin Murphy Go Daddy’s 2011 Super Bowl ad is going to have one big difference – it will advertise .co domains. The registrar has made a deal with .CO Internet to share the cost of the big-money ad – exact terms have not been disclosed – in what will be the biggest marketing deal for .co to date. The news broke last night at a rooftop party held by the .co registry in Cartagena, Colombia, following the first day of the ICANN public meeting here. Go Daddy ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Info Has Banner Year in 2010 - Registered base of .info domain names spikes in 2010. 2010 isn’t over yet, but .info registry Afilias has released its 2010 .Info Annual Report (pdf). (This is likely to coincide with the ICANN meeting in Colombia and media attention around new TLDs.) Afilias bills .info as the first “new TLD”, and it has easily outpaced its rivals in terms of registrations. At the end of September .info had 6.8 million domain name registrations. Compared to recent years, ... read more ...
Mon 6th December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
The 20 Most Influential People In The Domain Industry, 3 Years Later - As I was coming up to the 3rd anniversary of TheDomains.com I reviewed some of my earliest posts and came across a Post Entitled “The 20 Most Influential People In The Domain Industry“. Now I’m going to tell you right off the bat that I did NOT  come up with the list, I just reported on it. I thought it would be interesting to review the list to see how much things changed in the last 3 years. Here is how the list read 3 years ago: Vinton Cerf Former ICANN Chairman/ VP and chief Internet evangelist ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO: Xpand.com: Offering The Domain For Sale To The Highest Bidder is A Bona Fide Offering Of Goods/Services” - In a WIPO case decided today on the domain name, xpand.com, a three member panel ruled in favor of the domain holder despite a trademark, the domain being parked and the domain holder turning down a $10K offer demanding “something in the six figures” Although the complainant had a trademark so did several other companies, which added to the panel’s finding that the term Xpand was generic. Especially supportive of domainers was the following language in the decision: “””Due to the commercial ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Sells Color.com for $350,000 - Go Daddy goes big with Color.com. Go Daddy has sold the domain name Color.com for $350,000. The buyer is using a whois proxy to protect their information. The seller appears to be Warning Management Services Inc. of Anaheim, California. This is the second big transaction from Go Daddy that I’ve become aware of in recent weeks. Go Daddy executive accounts manager Brad Larson recently brokered the sale of HomeownersInsurance.com for $570,000. I’ve heard that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Telepathy Wins Reverse Domain Name Hijacking Charge Against 3-D Company - Company goes after domain name registered several years before it created its brand. Nat Cohen’s Telepathy, Inc. has successfully won a charge of reverse domain name hijacking against X6D Limited, which owns the XPAND brand of 3-D glasses. X6D filed the complaint over the domain name xpand.com. Telepathy, represented by domain name attorney Ari Goldberger, noted that it’s common to eliminate the ‘e’ in words that start with ‘ex’. The panel agreed, arguing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Week Ahead in Domain Names - A look at a busy week in the domain name industry. This is going to be a big week for domain names. Here’s some stuff to keep your eyes on: ICANN is meeting in Cartagena, Colombia. This is going to be a big meeting. On Friday the board will vote on its way forward for new top level domain names. There’s a lot of pressure — including input from the U.S. Department of Commerce — that could slow things down. But there’s also a lot of pressure to go forward. ... read more ...
Sun 5th December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
1/2 Hour After Entering Colombia, we Have Over a Million In My Pocket - Talk about the land of golden opportunity. Less 1/2 hour after touching down on the ground in Colombia, I was walking around with over a million in my pocket. 1.7 Million to be exact after I exchanged $1,000 US Dollars and got back 1.7 million Colombian Pesos. Using Google’s current exchange rate I should have gotten around 1.9 million Pesos so I got a good and proper screwing at the airport,  but still walked out with many 50,000 bills. Hey the way the US is printing money it may not be that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainHack.er in NL and tagged
Domeinnamenrecht / domeinnaamrecht (UDRP) - Een goede domeinnaam is belangrijk voor uw vindbaarheid op internet. Een domeinnaam kan maar een keer worden uitgegeven en daarbij geldt veelal het principe first come, first served. Dat komt echter anders te liggen wanneer iemand een domeinnaam kaapt met daarin uw (handels)naam of merk. Verschillende top level domains (TLDs) Een domeinnaam kan worden geregistreerd in verschillende zogenaamde top level domains (TLDs), zoals .com, .nl of .eu. Sommige TLDs zijn gebonden aan een land (zoals .nl ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Beckstrom: ICANN Doesn’t Take Down Websites - Over the last week I have gotten several comments on my various posts on the domain name seizures with people asking what ICANN position is on them. Well Rod Beckstrom CEO of ICANN has written about it on his blog and the answers the question quite clearly: That is the titled of the blog post which goes on to say: “” There have been many questions in recent days stemming from actions by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) in shutting down dozens of web sites. As we have ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The ICANN Meeting That Looked Like A Dud, Is Suddently Looking Like A Battle - When I started asking people a few weeks ago whether they were going to attend the ICANN meeting in Colombia that starts today, the vast majority of the responses I got was something along the lines of: “no I’m not going.  Nothing is really on the agenda or going to happen at this one I’m waiting for SF in March”. Well all of a sudden after the events of this week, this ICANN meeting looks like it might be VERY interesting. After all in the past 7 days we have seen the US government seize ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why Twitter Singled Out TwitterSearch.com - Owner tried to “extort” Twitter. As Robin Wauters wrote today, Twitter has filed a UDRP against the owner of TwitterSearch.com. With so many domain names out there including “twitter” in them, why has the company singled out this one? I know the answer. It turns out the owner of the domain name has been trying to sell the domain name for some time. Back in August a Domain Name Wire reader caught wind that the owner was trying to sell the domain name and ... read more ...
Sat 4th December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Now Paypal.com Cuts Off WikiLeaks - In another move by US companies to run away from any association with WikiLeaks, Paypal.com today announced it would cease processing transactions. Wikileaks has been asking for contributions to support its efforts and such contributions were being proceed through Paypal.com PayPal said its payment service cannot be used for activities “that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity”. US-based PayPal said on its blog today: “”PayPal has permanently ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Happy Birthday To Us!!!! We Turn 3 - Today marks our 3rd birthday. I know, I can’t believe it either. Our first post was December 4th 2007. In three years we have published over  2,400+ posts,  over 31,000 comments and had well over 1.7 million visitors. Wow Thanks to all of you who read and comment as you all have contributed to the success of the blog. I can’t express how much I appreciate your loyal readership and interaction. It was just a couple of months before I started writing the blog that my good friend Sahar called ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Groupon.com Says No To Google & Its $6 BILLION Dollars - I had a domainer write me today and tell me he couldn’t believe I had turned down $100,000 offer on a domain. Tonight theStreet.com and the Wall Street Journal are both reporting that Groupon.com has said NO. No to Google No to $6 Billion dollars. Lets see. I think its sounds worse if I write it like this: Groupon says no to $6,000,000,000. Yup, I was right, it does sound worse. You guys do know that Groupon wasn’t even in existence 2 years ago right? If you want to read more you can do so here. Personally ... read more ...
Fri 3rd December 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Shopping Is HOT & Companies In a Space Are Selling For Tens Of Millions - Shopping is hot and companies in the space are being bought up for big bucks Yesterday it was reported that eBay purchased Milo.com for $75 Million. Milo.com lists real-time in-store product inventory for over 50,000 stores across the country. Today the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon.com purchased a minority position in the “number two local deal site LivingSocial.com for $175 million.” LivingSocial.com also offers deals on shopping, dining and local attractions LivingSocial claims ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Breaking News: Monte Cahn Leaving Oversee.net Dec 31 - Oversee.net just put out a press release announcing that Monte Cahn will be leaving Oversee at the end of the year: Here is the the press release: “Monte Cahn, the founder of Moniker® and a widely-known domain name industry pioneer, has elected to leave the company at the conclusion of his contract later this month.” “Oversee appreciates all of Monte’s contributions to the company and to the industry,” said Oversee CEO and President Jeff Kupietzky.  “We respect his readiness to part ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO Panel Denies Relief To Previous Owner Of Prince.com Who Alleged Theft Of His Domain - Back In October we told you that the former owner of the domain name Prince.com filed a UDRP, seeking return of the domain which he claimed was stolen and resold. Today a three member panel decision denied the claim saying simply that the UDRP was not designed to handle a claim of alleged theft: “””The contentions of the Parties indicate that this is not a case to be decided under the Policy. The Policy was designed to combat cyber squatting, the abusive registration and use of a domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WikiLeaks Isn’t Down, They Have Just Moved - Elliotsblog.com is reporting this morning that WikiLeaks.org and .com are both down. Godaddy.com has appeared to bow to public objection to them benefiting from the typo traffic to the .com. However the real site, WikiLeaks isn’t down, its just moved. In the latest round of domain name gamesmanship Wikileaks.org has now moved to a ccTLD and is back up on WikiLeaks.ch. .Ch is the country code for Switzerland. Interestingly if you look at your browser once you type in WikiLeaks.ch, the address reverts ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
More Fallout From Domain Seizures: Huge Torrent Site Demonoid.com Preemptively Changes To a .Me To Avoid Seizure - A huge torrent site, Demonoid.com announced yesterday that it was preemptively moving itself from a .com address to a .me to prevent seizure by the US Government. .Me is a ccTLD whose registry is not under US jurisdiction. According to Alexa.org, Demonoid.com is in the top 500 of all sites in terms of traffic. Demonoid.com no longer resolves,  Demonoid.me is already resolving We are in the process of migrating the site to our new address, Demonoid.ME,” said the site’s owner in an announcement. “Please ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Breaking News: US Government Opposes Launch of New gTLD Program in Cartagena - ICANN acknowledged on their blog today, that they received a letter today from the US Department of Commerce opposing the introduction of the new gTLD’s program in Cartagena. In its letter to ICANN,  The Department of Commerce writes: (pdf) “I am concern over the apparent failure of ICANN to carry out its obligations as specified in the “Affirmations of Commitments”. The letter goes on to chastise ICANN for not completing the economic study it agreed to conduct to evaluate the potential ... read more ...