Monthly Archives: October 2011

Wed 26th October 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
TechDirt: 20 More Domains Seized Over The Weekend - According to TechDirt.com 20 more domain names were seized over the weekend by ICE, part of the Department of Homeland Security. The domain names all allegedly involved sale of unauthorized NFL merchandise The list of domains seized:   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Afternic.com Sells $630K in Domains Led By Averages.com for $20K - Afternic.com announced sales tonight for the week ending Sunday October 23rd In all $630,000 of domain names sold lead by Averages.com for $20K 23rd.com was a nice sale IMHO at $14K   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registrars Work to Amend ICANN Agreement to Address Security Concerns - Accredited domain name registrars and ICANN work to amend RAA. During the ICANN meeting in Dakar, ICANN and registrars will announce that they’re working to amend the current Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) to address security concerns and provided “increased protections for registrants”. Apparently this has been in the works for a while and is not a snap reaction to increased pressure by law enforcement agencies during the meeting. ICANN accredited ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Universal Studios Buys Movie Domain, McDonald’s and Louisville Slugger Also Make Domain Buys - Movie studio buys probable film name and other big names make domain name purchases. It was a great week for end user domain sales at Afternic. Starting things off, Universal Studios bought PrepareforBattle.com for $1,688. I can’t find information about a movie it plans to release by this name, but you can bet your money on it. Another notable sale was McDonald’s purchase of MCIN.com for $3,373. I didn’t realize the company also owns MCD.com. It apparently only ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Did You Know? No Policy Against Registry-Registrar Cross-Ownership - ICANN has never had a formal policy against registry-registrar cross-ownership. ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom has responded to European Commission Commissioner Neelie Kroes on the issue of cross ownership between domain name registrars and registries, also know as vertical integration. Kroes sent a letter to Beckstrom in June expressing concern over vertical integration and potential competition concerns. Beckstrom explains (pdf) that ICANN has never had a strict policy ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
AfternicDLS and SedoMLS Automate Removal of Sold Domains - Distributed listing systems avoid duplicate sales. One of the fears people have of listing domains at buy now prices is that they’ll accidentally sell it after they no longer own it. I don’t know about you, but when I sell a domain on one marketplace I don’t immediately go remove it from other marketplaces. This presents the real possibility that, should I have listed it with a buy now price on two marketplaces, it could sell twice. That would put me in a bind. To ... read more ...
Tue 25th October 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
Sedo.com Sells $654K In Reportable Domain Sales – Over $1.73M For The Week - Sedo.com just released its sales for the week with $653,924 in reportable sales, and a total of $1.73M sales from 871 names being sold through their marketplace. The reportable sales were led by callisto.com for €50,000 followed by cocomo.com for $33,000. Here is the complete list of reportable sales: Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Berryhill Wins UDRP For Channel.TV: But Why No Reverse Hijacking? - Mr. John Berryhill has just won another UDRP this time on a .TV domain, Channel.TV The Complaint was brought by Channel Television Limited of St Helier, Jersey, United Kingdom of Great Britain whom despite finding that they had “unregistered trademark rights” to the domain, found no bad faith by the registrants. Here are the relevant facts and findings of the three member panel: “The Complainant is a television broadcaster that has operated in the Channel Islands since 1962 under various names ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Luxembourg Offers Domain Companies Great Tax Advantages - Seychelles IBC, zero taxes for me, cheap to set up a business there, 100 bucks to the government every year, and you dont even have to file accounts with anyone (if you dont want to!!). I got a T-shirt that says “Legally Untaxable” and I love wearing it!!! Keep it simple. Spend the money….. Laughing???? All the way to the bank!!!! Sorry this is a long reply, I hope it helps someone, but definitely take better advice than I can give before taking the leap!! SEYCHELLES INTERNATIONAL ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Department of Commerence To Put The IANA Contract Up For Bid - The U.S. Government announced a few days its putting up the contract to run the the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) out for competitive bid starting November 4th and ending December 4th. “”The IANA functions include (1) the coordination of the assignment of technical Internet protocol parameters; (2) the administration of certain responsibilities associated with the Internet DNS root zone management; (3) the allocation of Internet numbering resources; and (4) other services related ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to Add Your Domains to SedoMLS - A simple guide to take advantage of Sedo’s new integration with Moniker. Thousands of domainers can now add their domains to SedoMLS Premium thanks to the company’s new agreement with Moniker. With SedoMLS Premium you can list your domains across Sedo’s network of partner sites (including in the registration path at many registrars) and they can be instantly purchased and transferred. I just went through the process of adding a couple domains to MLS. It’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ProTrada is a Domain Buyer’s Dashboard - Tool helps domain investors win domain auctions at lower prices. Last week at TRAFFIC I had a chance to sit down with the team behind ProTrada, a (beta) system for buying domain names across multiple platforms. The idea is simple: find the best domain names available on exchanges and expired domain sites and get them for the lowest possible price. The basic features of ProTrada are nothing new; it’s how they’re all brought together that makes this a killer application. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Software Company Sues Research in Motion Over Blackberry BBX Name - New Mexico company claims trademark infringement over BBX name. Software company BASIS International Ltd yesterday filed a lawsuit (pdf) against Blackberry maker Research in Motion over the company’s choice of name for its new Blackberry operating system, following up on a legal threat it made last week. Research in Motion announced its next generation Blackberry BBX last week, and BASIS says it immediately began receiving confusing inquiries from its customers. ... read more ...
Mon 24th October 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
With 5 Days Left In Sunrise, .XXX Reports Over 42,000 Applications Taken - ICM Registry, the company behind the .XXX top-level domain (TLD), today announced it has received has received over 42,000 applications for .XXX domain names since the September 7, 2011 launch of the Sunrise Period “with thousands more pouring in each day”. The number of applications already received is over five times what ICM had anticipated. “We are very pleased, but not surprised, by this overwhelming response to the availability of .XXX domains,” said Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry. ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
National Retail Federation Asks Commerce Dept To Delay New gTLD Plan But Its PR Is Full Of Inaccuracies - Today according to a press release, The National Retail Federation (NRF)  asked the Commerce Department to delay implementation of the new gTLD program “The single comment we are hearing most often from retailers is that they wish they had more time,” NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said. “Whether they’re for it or against it, everybody agrees that there has been too much uncertainty around this process. Right now, uncertainty reigns.” Reading through the Press ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
CreditReports.com, Prime.com, CE.com and Floor.com Highlight Moniker.com Year End Auction (So Far) - The preliminarily catalog for the Moniker.com Year End auction is now live on SnapNames.com and there are already some interesting domain names up for sale. CreditReports.com, Prime.com, CE.com (which stands for Continuing Education among thousands of other things) along with Floor.com have reserve ranges of $1 Million to $5 Million. A single letter domain F.biz has a reserve of $10K-$25K.  I believe the last one of these to sell was g.biz for $30K A nice .tv at no reserve is realityshows.tv with ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XXX Has Grossed $10 Million Already [Updated] - ICM Registry has already pocketed 8 figures from .xxx. .XXX Registry ICM Registry has already taken in $10 million for the .xxx launch…and general availability hasn’t even started. ICM Registry has received 42,000 applications for .xxx domain names with just five days remaining in the sunrise period. At an average application fee of $200 this means registrants have already forked over $8.4 million to get (or block) .xxx domain names. ICM Registry gets about $162 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
“Weird Al” Yankovic: 20-30% of Traffic is Misspelled - How do people misspell weird? Here’s an interesting tidbit from Spin Magazine’s recent interview with “Weird Al” Yankovic. Spin asked Weird Al how often people misspell his name wierd (with the i and e reversed). He responded: Quite a few. In fact, I believe we still have that spelling registered as a domain name. Scarily enough, I checked the traffic once, and 20 to 30 percent of traffic to WeirdAl.com is people searching for it with the incorrect spelling. Now ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ClickVentures Solidifies Cookies.com and PartySupplies.com Brands with Domain Purchases - PartySupply.com and CookieGifts.com forward to category-defining domain names. ClickVentures, the company behind Cookies.com and PartySupplies.com, continues to snap up category killer domain names as it builds out its web empire. The company, led by Drew Sharma, made two big domain purchases this summer to solidify its brands. First, it picked up PartySupply.com. This will complement its PartySupplies.com web site. It bought the latter domain for $360,000 in 2010. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Web.com Plans .Web Top Level Domain - Company plans to apply for .web and says no one else should be allowed to get the TLD. Publicly traded Web.com plans to apply for the .web top level domain name and says no one else should be allowed to apply for the TLD due to its trademarks. The company has a pre-reservation form up on its web site and just filed a trademark application for the name. This is the first I’ve heard of the company’s plans, although its trademark application says it has been using ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Minnesota Lawyer Magazine Claims MinnesotaLawyer.com Violates Its Trademark - The challenges of a descriptive trademark. The Dolan Company, owner of Minnesota Lawyer Magazine, is claiming that MinnesotaLawyer.com is violating its trademark. MinnesotaLawyer.com is maintained by Minnesota lawyer Aaron Hall. His law firm Twin Cities Law Firm, LLC also owns MinnesotaAttorney.com. Dolan company sent him a cease desist letter (pdf). Hall says he has a right to blog on the web site. In a press release, he provides a comparison: This is like a company ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How Secure is a .Secure Trademark Application? - Company that filed .secure trademark application is now apparently using it in commerce. People will try to game the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office all day long. In August I wrote about how Asif LLC applied for the .secure trademark. It later applied for .bank. Now Asif alleges actual use of the term in commerce. How did the company allege it’s using the top level domain .secure in commerce? Well, first of all it isn’t claiming it’s a TLD. It says it wants ... read more ...
Sun 23rd October 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
Politico.com Covers TheDomains.com Story On Herman Cane’s 999Plan.com: Is It Cybersquatting? - Last week we wrote a story on Herman Cain who at the time had just surged ahead of the Republican field of candidates for President based largely on his 999 Tax plan. Yesterday the site Politico.com picked up the story found out that the owner of the domain name 999plan.com was none other than David Corn, the Washington editor of the liberal Mother Jones magazine and MSNBC/NBC News analyst. According to Politico story Corn registered the domain on September 7, for $17.68 and another $22 to make it ... read more ...
Sat 22nd October 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WSJ: Google Looking To Buy Yahoo - According to a story just out in the Wall Street Journal, Google has met with at least private equity firms about potentially helping them finance a deal to buy Yahoo. Of course this would deal would get a good look over by the Feds. However, as Scott Cleland the author of the book “Dark Side of Google” stated at the TRAFFIC conference this past week,  the Feds ultimately allowed Google’s purchase of Doubleclick and Admob. Mr. Cleland said about those acquisitions by Google: “Both administrations,  ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Should TheDomains.com Require People To Use Their Real Names To Leave Comments? - This week on theDomains.com there has been a discussion of whether people should be allow to comment anonymously or should the ability to comment be limited to people who are willing to identify themselves So I’m throwing the topic out for discussion. Here are my thoughts; As an attorney I have this freedom of speech thing sort of ingrained in me. While I understand this people can hide behind can be used as a way to attack people or positions, I also understand that not everyone is comfortable ... read more ...