Monthly Archives: June 2011

Tue 14th June 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Question Is Why Did Godaddy Triple Its Fees Without Sending Out A Notice To Its Customers? - So I saw the blog post of DomainNameWire.com today which refers to a post by Hybrid Domainer: “””Go Daddy Auctions has increased its sales commission three-fold from 5% to 15%. This change was noticed by Hybrid Domainer earlier today.”” So my issue is a simple one. Why did a blogger have to “notice” a change where Godaddy tripled its rate? Why didn’t Godaddy send out notices to its customers or even bloggers well in advance of such an increase? TheDomains.com gets notices, lets call ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
U.S. Government to Drop .Gov Domain Names - .Gov domain deletions coming. Of course, you can’t have any. Via GovInfoSecurity.com comes news that the White House wants to trim the number of .gov domain names and associated web sites. I find it ironic that the Obama administration is the one to crack down on the number of web sites and .gov domains (numbered at 2,000 at the second level) given that it has probably embraced special purpose .gov domains more than any previous administration. Think Change.gov. But ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
My Picks for Moniker Premium Auction Ending Wednesday - Some picks — including some big ones — for Wednesday’s auction. Moniker’s premium domain name auction, which was moved to an online-only event after technical problems in Barcelona last week, ends on Wednesday at 3:15 PM ET. As with recent auctions, I think some of the activity will take place outside the auction. We’ve already seen the monster sale of Data.com to Salesforce.com before the auction even started. All we know for sure is that the sales ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oversee.net Sells Chop.com for $60,000 - No price chopping with Chop.com. Oversee.net has sold Chop.com from its owned and operated portfolio with the help of Afternic. A UK company that appears to be a battery importer purchased the domain name for $60,000. As of right now the domain name still resolves to a DomainSponsor parked page. Chop.com was by far Afternic’s biggest sale of the week, although it has the usual strong list of four figure domains. Here are some of the top ones: antonio.net $11,000.00 netstars.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Expired Domain Rule Changes Closer to Reality - Group issues final report with recommended changes to how registrars handle expired domain names. ICANN’s Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery (PEDNR) Policy Development Process Working Group has issued its final report (pdf) with 18 recommendations for handling expired domain names. Although the recommendations have increased from 14 in the previous report, many of them are merely “best practices” and not requirements. One of the most important changes is a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
U.S. Shuns .Music Trademark Ahead of New TLD Launch - Trademark office questions use in commerce of .music logo. Constantine Roussos has made it clear that he plans to use international trademarks to help him win the .music top level domain name during the application process. But the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office isn’t playing a long. On December 31 Roussos filed a trademark application for a .music logo. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office wrote back saying there were two problems: 1. The mark hasn’t been ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy.com Goes Down for “Several Hours” Last Night - Domain name registrar’s web site goes down. [Updated story to reflect timeline as last night, not this morning. Note that if you still can’t reach GoDaddy.com it’s probably your ISP’s cache. You can test any site here to see if it’s just you. Also, if for some reason your Go Daddy hosting isn’t working, this is unrelated. You should call Go Daddy support.] Customers trying to register new domain names or manage their accounts at GoDaddy.com last night ... read more ...
Mon 13th June 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Here is The Letter The EU Sent To The US & The US Response Back ON .XXX: Hint The EU Is Not Happy - ankabooot.com just published the letter that the .EU sent to the US Commerce Department objecting to the addition of .XXX to the root and the response the US sent back to the letter. Its an interesting read: Here is the letter from the .EU:   Dear Gary, I am writing to express my concern regarding the recent decision by ICANN on 18th March in its meeting in San Francisco, to approve the proposed Internet Top Level Domain (TLD) “.XXX”. As you will be aware, the Governmental Advisory Committee ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
So Is The World Going To Give The US The Power Over Every New gTLD? - As Kieren McCarthy points out this weekend in his excellent post entitled: “”US government overhauls main Internet contract”” In the document called the “further notice of inquiry” which will be formally published next week and put up for public comment the ‘IANA contract’ which is currently run by ICANN and is due to expire in September 2011. The Notice is signed by Larry Strickling who in his position of Assistant Commerce Secretary, who has given ICANN a pretty hard time at every ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Triples Auction Fees to 15% - Auction fees go up as domains get more exposure. Go Daddy Auctions has increased its sales commission three-fold from 5% to 15%. This change was noticed by Hybrid Domainer earlier today. The auction price increase makes sense given that auction listings now show up in the registration path when someone searches for the exact domain name on Go Daddy. A Premium Listing carries a 30% commission while the typical auction listing only cost 5% until now. This is steep ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
3M Sues Whois Privacy Services and Web Hosts Over Gambling Domains - Company names major domain companies in basket of defendants for cybersquatting. 3M has filed a lawsuit against a who’s who of domain name whois privacy services, registrars, and web hosts, along with numerous John Does. The conglomerate alleges the defendants are using a number of domain names incorporating 3M’s trademark for gambling sites. Example sites include mmmbet.net, 3M-Asia.com, and 3m-sportbetting.com. A number of the site names have changed since ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Changes NYC Show Format to Meetup, Nixes Las Vegas - New York show changed to a meetup and Las Vegas show canceled. Oversee.net has made some changes to its remaining DOMAINfest shows for 2011. First, the New York show planned for August will now be an evening meetup instead of a one day “Power Networking” day. The event will take place August 23 from 7-10 pm at the Mad46 Rooftop Lounge. Registration isn’t open yet but the web site notes it will be $150. I’m a bit disappointed in this change because the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Wins Another UDRP, What Was Greenberg Traurig Thinking? - Lawyer makes some really bad accusations. Tucows has won another domain name that is part of its “Personal Names Service”. Tucows acquired the domain name Primm.com when it bought Mailbank (NetIdentity) in 2006. NetIdentity registered the domain name in 1996. The case was filed by Herbst Gaming, LLC with the help of Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Greenberg Traurig is no stranger to UDRP filings, having represented over 400 UDRP cases. This makes the arguments presented ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
6 UDRP Cases to Watch - 6 notable UDRP filings this month. Here are a half dozen UDRP cases filed this month to keep an eye on for various reasons. ChrisFarley.com – I’m guessing it is the estate of the late comedian that filed this case. Twiter.com – Twitter files a UDRP against the owner of Twiter.com, a site that clearly tries to trick users who are looking for Twitter.com. IXO.com – I’m always suspicious of filings for three letter domain names. Let’s see what the deal is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Epik Releases Upgrade to Its Product Portals - Site creation tool releases improvements geared to more content. Epik has released an upgrade to its product sites dubbed Product Portals 3.0. The latest version is designed to offer more content on product sites, which is of course critical to search engine placement. Users can now create full articles using an article editor as well as import content from other sites. (So far content can only be imported from ArticlesBase.com.) The content module includes a scheduler ... read more ...
Sun 12th June 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Twitter.com Files UDRP For Twiter.com - According to a post by Fusible last night, Twitter.com just filed a UDRP on the domain name Twiter.com yesterday (D2011-0986) Twiter.com was registered on May 7th 2004. According to current whois Twitter.com was registered on May 24, 2009. However, Domaintools.com shows the domain being registered back in 2000. Twitter.com appears to have gotten the domain name in June 2007. Twitter also filed for a trademark in April 2007. So Twiter.com was registered three years before Twitter, Inc. got Twitter.com Twiter.com ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
1st Trademarks, Now Wisconsin Court Says Its Ok To Buy Keyword Ads Under A Persons Name - There have been quite a few cases brought against advertisers for buying keyword ads under a trademark term but a Wisconsin Court just rejected an argument that buying a keyword under a persons name violated their right to privacy. In the case  Habush v. Cannon, the defendants a personal injury law firm bought ads under the keywords of  two of their competitors’ last names (“Habush” and “Rottier”). The Plaintiffs, not having a trademark rights  in their name, claimed a the ads violated ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Cricket.com Changes Web Site After Lawsuit - Site no longer shows ads related to mobile phones. Cricket.com owner Global Cricket Ventures hasn’t formally responded to Cricket Communications’ lawsuit over the domain name Cricket.com — at least in court. But it has drastically changes its web site to eliminate all references and ads related to mobile phones. The site is now just a bare bones one page web site with a couple news feeds about cricket and a score board. Gone is the fantasy cricket offering ... read more ...
Sat 11th June 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Lawsuits: Google Sued For Trademark Infringement Over Its New ChromeBook: Apple Sued Over iCloud - According to Bloomberg.com, Intellectual property manager ISYS Technologies sued Google for trademark infringement claiming that  the Chrome operating system violates the trademarks for ISYS’s “Chromium” Computer. Google’s new ChromeBook operates on the Google Chrome Operating Ststem. I guess as a web browser ISYS had no problem with Google’s Chrome,  but now that there is going to be a computer with the name Chrome Incorporated in it, ISYS filed suit. “ISYS said today in a statement ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
2 Domains We Recently Sold Are In The National News: BigGovernment.com; GetAround.com - 25K they over paid for the name they could of done the same thing with a reg fee domain biggov.biz was open as I type this biggovernment.biz/tv was open the name is nothing to that they’re known politico’s they don’t need catchy .com’s IMO their names or a some bs political term other than a 25K catchy .com would have made them come on, huffingtonpost.com was branded for inside politico crap you got hot news, you can break anything with any .com/net/org/biz/tv/co/whatever news/content ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Gary Chernoff Sells AdNet.com for $60,000 - Chernoff strikes again. Gary Chernoff has made another big domain name sale with AdNet.com for $60,000. The updated whois information shows that RevNet bought the domain name. RevNet bills its business as the “Worlds 1st On-Demand Data Monetization Platform for businesses and publishers.” The company owns another “net.com” domain, CallNet.com. It’s clear RevNet understands the importance of domain names. Two of its other domains are monetization.com ... read more ...
Fri 10th June 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
DealFrenzy.com Site Sold Before It Even Launched For $700K - According to a press release, a public company called Intertainment Media Inc. (OTCQX:ITMTF) announced that it just purchased a site DealFrenzy.com for $700,00o although the site hasn’t officially launched. Here’s the deal: “The acquisition combines cash and Intertainment Media common stock with $500,000 in cash and $200,000 in Intertainment common stock at $1 CDN per common share ” “DealFrenzy.com is scheduled to go live in early July 2011.” “DealFrenzy.com will launch in select cities ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
MediaOptions.com Brokers Adventure.com For $200K & Has Brokered $17 Million in Domains In The Last 18 Months - MediaOptions.com just brokered the sale of the domain name Adventure.com for $200,000 The buyer of the domain is Eric Borgos who as we noted a few weeks ago is on a bit of a shopping spree. Eric has purchased Physical.com for $42,500, Humidifiers.com for $50K, Pastries.com for $12,500 and AdvertisingAgency.com for $33,000 all within the last month or so. The Seller was Knowledge Adventure Corporation a children’s educational games company. The broker of the deal, MediaOptions.com continues to have ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Tucows Goes Mobile On Ting.com - According to a post on Facebook, Tucows.com is launching a new mobile service called Ting “”Tucows goes mobile! super excited about http://ting.com/. let me know if you want to get into the beta or have any questions. I love the early feedback. if suggests this could be a game changer!” said CEO Elliot Noss. The page on Ting.com says: “We think there are a lot of things about mobile service that don’t make sense. Ting is a new mobile service planning to change that.” Ting.com already ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
OO.com Launches Today But Is It A Good Name? - According to a press release today, a company called Next Jump, which operates an employee rewards and loyalty programs, launched OO.com today. “”OO.com is a one-stop shopping destination that gives valuable, proprietary WOWPoints™ for every transaction” “The site delivers best-price offers on everything from travel to dining to household items. ” “With deep experience in building trusted rewards programs currently used by more than 100 million people, ... read more ...