We Beat Back Sony’s Attempt to Register A Trademark On A Domain We Own; Move.me - We just took on one of the biggest company’s in the world and won.
We acquired the domain name Move.me, in a auction by the .me registry on Sedo.com in November 2010.
Sony launched it product fits called Move.me, for its PlayStation 3 in January 2011
Sony filed for a trademark on term Move.me in February 2011.
We hired Erika L. Hengst, Esq, the wife of domain developer Sean Sullivan, to object to the trademark.
Now several months after filing our objection, Sony this week, dropped their application ... read more ...
Monthly Archives: March 2012
Sat 31st March 2012
Fri 30th March 2012
Facebook Closes It Pre-IPO marketplace during $44.10 A Share or $110 Billion Valuation - This week Facebook told the secondary market traders that they need to stop trading securities in Facebook.com in the run up to its May IPO
Today Sharespost.com just closed it last offering of Facebook shares and the selling price was $44.10 a share
At $44 a share the market cap of Facebook is around $110 Billion dollars which is I think more than the market cap expected by Facebook itself who was looking to sell shares giving it a $100 Billion valuation when it’s IPO hits in May.
We started following ... read more ...
If Only 20% Of The US Population Has Even Heard Of SEO Why Are We Surprised About There Lack Of Knowledge Of Domains? - According to Matt Cutts of Google only 20% of the US population has ever “heard” of the term SEO.
The question wasn’t whether people understand the term SEO, its significance; its importance in the internet community.
The question was just whether they have heard of it, and the answer of 20% is pretty shocking:
“”In my world, everyone I talk to has heard of search engine optimization (SEO).”
“But I’ve always wondered: do regular people in the U.S. know what SEO is? ”
“With Google’s ... read more ...
UPDATED: Quick Poll: How Many New gTLD Applications Will Be Submitted? 44,100 is Possible - Now that ICANN updated the number of paid users to the TAS system to 839, with several days remaining its probably fair to say there will be at least 900 users by the time final figures are remaining.
We know that each user can submit 49 applications, making it possible if the final number of users is 900, there could be 44,100 applications if each registered user put in the max number of applications.
However we know that’s not going to happen.
So we have now updated the poll that we have been ... read more ...
Marchex shutting down domain parking program -
Marchex to no longer park domains for customers.
Marchex is officially shutting down its domain parking program for clients.
Wait. What’s that, you say? They have a parking platform?
Yes, but they’ve been in the process of scaling it back since at least 2008. In the first half of 2008 it grossed $5 million in revenues from its parking platform called SiteBox. It anticipated revenues of only $500,000 for the fourth quarter of 2008. I’m not aware of anyone who ... read more ...
I’d buy a lot of domains with my $640 million Mega Millions jackpot -
You could buy a lot of great domains with $640 million.
If you see me buying a lot of domains at the next domain conference auction, it’s probably because I won the Mega Millions jackpot.
That’s what I’d do with a good portion of my winnings.
The lottery jackpot is up to $640 million tonight.
Of course I wouldn’t get to take that much home.
The “cash value” pot is $462 million. Then I assume a couple people will win, so let’s say $231 million.
The ... read more ...
Frank Schilling sole WheelsUp.com to Marquis Jet owner for $50k, after $500k offer -
Marquis Jet founder bought domain for new investment firm, later shuns $500k offer.
Owen Frager and Elliot Silver recently discovered that Marquis Jet was somehow related to the buyer of WheelsUp.com, a domain Frank Schilling sold last year.
Now we know the exact relationship.
Marquis Jet founder Kenny Dichter bought the domain name for a new investment firm he’s part of, Wheels Up Partners, LLC, he told CNBC in an interview today.
Purchase price? $50,000 according ... read more ...
Confirmed: Netflix buys DVD.com -
Netflix buys DVD.com domain name.
[Update: Netflix has confirmed its purchase of DVD.com. A spokesperson tells Domain Name Wire “Netflix cares about keeping DVD healthy, and this is just one small investment in keeping DVD healthy.”]
The nameservers and registrant information for DVD.com just changed. The domain now forwards to DVD.netflix.com, signalling that Netflix may have purchased the domain.
Sometime around March 25 the nameservers changed from worldnic.com ... read more ...
Amazon domain registrations advise B2B or production supply pull [Updated] -
Domains related to lab supplies and “small parts” suggest manufacturing or B2B play.
I buy just about all electronics for my business on Amazon: monitors, laptops, even occasional specialty equipment costing thousands of dollars. Seriously, you can buy just about anything on the site.
Now it appears Amazon may be gearing up for a serious B2B or manufacturing play. Check out these domain registrations from March 28:
amazon-supplies.com
amazon-supply.com
amazonequipmentsupplies.com
amazonequipmentsupply.com
amazonindustrialsupplies.com
amazonlabsupplies.com
amazonlabsupply.com
amazonscientificsupplies.com
amazonscientificsupply.com
amazonsupplies.net
amazonsupply-smallparts.com
amazonsupply.net
amazonsupplyitems.com
amazonsupplypart.com
amazonsupplyparts.com
amazonsupplysmallparts.com
smallparts-amazonsupply.com
smallpartsamazonsupply.com
suppliesamazon.com
supplyamazon.com
[Update ... read more ...
Thu 29th March 2012
Watch Out For The Namejet.com Bulk Bidding Page As Its Now Filling In The Next Highest Bid Automatically - When I’m checking out Namejet.com to see what domain auctions are currently opened for bidding, I usually use the bulk bidding page.
I’m not sure when it changed, but I wanted to alert everyone to the fact that the bulk bidding page has changed, so when you pull up all the domains at auction using the bulk bidding tool, the page auto fills the next highest bid amount in each domain auction.
If you intend to only bid on one or two names on your bulk page, you’re going to have to remove all the ... read more ...
Eric Borgos Makes Another Great Buy; Weights.com for $32K On Sedo - Domain Investor Eric Borgos of Impulse Corp., has just acquired another really nice name at a great price.
The domain Weights.com just came across the Sedo sales wire at $32,000.
We have run into Eric’s purchases from time to time and this marks another quality pickup
Congrats
Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Bankrate buys InsuranceAgents.com -
Company acquires another insurance lead gen site
Bankrate has added to its stable of lead gen web sites with great domain names by acquiring InsuranceAgents.com.
The news was reported today by Columbus Business First.
The sales price was not disclosed, although we may see it in an upcoming BankRate SEC filing.
InsuranceAgents.com helps people find exactly what you’d think it would — local insurance agents. It also has quote comparison tools.
I think the Columbus ... read more ...
Commercial Connect relates for .shop trademarks -
Company vying for .shop files dead-on-arrival applications with USPTO.
Commercial Connect, LLC, one of the companies planning to apply for the .shop top level domain, has filed two trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The two applications are for “.shop” and “DotShop”, and were filed on March 23.
Both applications were filed on an intent-to-use basis, although the “Good and Services” description claims some prior use:
C 045. ... read more ...
What domains Disney and 12 other finish users bought final week -
Disney buys a domain on Sedo and other end user domain buys.
Disney was among 13 end user domain buyers in this week’s report. All of these sales took place at Afternic unless otherwise noted.
Tech Instrumentation, Inc., which owns TechInstrument.com, bought the plural version TechInstruments.com for $2,000.
Academy Fire Protection bought ExtinguisherService.com for $1,388.
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center bought LivingLegend.org for $1,353.50.
The company behind Textbook ... read more ...
Wed 28th March 2012
Yahoo Drops Meme - Yahoo has just send out a notice to uses that it is closing down it Meme program in May.
Meme is a micro blogging site that was launched in August 2009.
Here is the notice that went out to users today:
“Meme will be discontinued on May 25, 2012.
Unfortunately, the time has come to say goodbye to Meme.
As part of Yahoo!’s commitment to delivering Web content and tools that matter most to people, we are reprioritizing our portfolio so we can focus on our core strengths and new innovations.
You ... read more ...
Reprint: Our Post From May 2011 About The Dismissal Of The CFIT Case & The Resulting Prices Increases Of Verisign On .Com’s Forever - The news broke last night that ICANN was opening the public comment period on the renewal of the contract with Verisign (current one expires at the end of this year) which once again would give Verisign a 6 year contract to operate the registry with a right to raise prices in 4 of the 6 years of its choice 7% compounded.
Back almost a year ago we wrote a story entitled What The Settlement Of The CFIT Case Means To The Cost-Of-Your .Com Registrations/Renewals.
Once the CFIT case was dismissed by the ... read more ...
Wow: 839 entities sealed adult for ICANN’s new tip turn domain system -
Latest update shows 839 registered users for new top level domain application system.
ICANN just updated the stats for the number of registered users in its online TLD Application System (TAS).
As of March 25 there were a whopping 839 registered users.
Each registered user can apply for up to 50 domains, although most of these users probably intend to apply for just one.
Since most applications will come in the final days, and March 29th (tomorrow) is the deadline, ... read more ...
Transpact drops escrow fees on U.S. dollar exchange (and it’s unequivocally cheap) -
Escrow company’s already low fees drop for customers transacting in U.S. dollars.
I know a couple things about Transpact: a handful of readers have used it for domain name escrow and its services are ridiculously inexpensive.
Today I got an email from the company about a pricing change for U.S. dollar transactions.
Transactions up to $2,500 are now $9.99 per party per transaction with a $15 payment fee for any U.S. dollar disbursement over $100. So basically any ... read more ...
Juilliard successful in take down try of fraud web site -
Juilliard.me to be transferred to performing arts school.
The famous Juilliard School for performing arts in New York City has used World Intellectual Property Organization to take down a web site that it says was falsely accepting donations.
The action was filed against Juilliard.me, which is registered to a Cambridge, Massachusetts man.
If you look at the site now, you’ll see this:
But according to Juilliard’s complaint, the site previously offered “Google ... read more ...
Some people make me sick. -
How could someone try to make a buck of the death of teenager Trayvon Martin?
The most tasteless: Itrayvonmartin.com for sale on eBay.
I have the domain name for Itrayvonmartin.com
This auction is for the domain name .
Also have the domain name for travonmartin.org contact if you want that one.
These registrations and sites related to Trayvon Martin aren’t any better:
TrayVonMartinMurderTrial.com – listed for sale on GoDaddy Auctions for $300
TrayvonMartinSkittles.com ... read more ...
How is Flippa for shopping and offered domains? -
Have you used Flippa for buying or selling domain names?
I got a note from Flippa today reminding that their site isn’t just for buying and selling web sites. They have a number of domain auctions, too.
Two they highlighted were Better.com — currently at $75,000 — and Links.com — currently at $60,000.
The catch is that neither of these domains has hit their reserve. And Flippa doesn’t disclose a reserve range. So it could be that everyone is wasting their ... read more ...
Tue 27th March 2012
Afternic.com Sells $1.01MM In Domains Led By ChessStore.com At $11K - Afternic.com just published its weekly report of domain name sales totalling $1,011,383 for the week ending March 25th. The publicly reportable sales were led by ChessStore.com at $11,000 followed by SSDFirm.com at $8,900.
Below is the complete list released of publicly reportable sales:
Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Sedo.com Sells $1.6MM In Domains Led By End.com At $100K - Sedo.com just announced its weekly sales data for the week ending March 26th. In all $1.6MM of domains were sold. The top reportable sale was End.com at $100,000.
Other domains topping the list of public sales were online-games.com at $48,000 followed by myinvest.com for $35,000.
In all 981 domains were sold.
Below is the entire list of publicly reportable sales in their respective currencies:
Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
.XXX Registrations Go On Sale For Two Weeks - It seems that the cost of registering a .XXX domain name is going on sale for a limited time at just a few registrars.
Moniker.com just announced it was reducing the price of a .XXX registration from $98 to $69 from only Match 26th- April 9th a 30% savings.
According to a press release this morning, EuroDns.com is reducing the price to 29,99 Euro’s, which is around $40 but when I went to the URL it directed me to in the email, the normal price of $98.77 was still showing.
If the EuroDNS press release ... read more ...
Wholesale cost for .com domains could strike $10.29 by 2016 -
Why should registry costs increase 7% a year?
ICANN has published a proposed agreement to renew the .com contract with VeriSign.
As expected, the agreement allows VeriSign to hike prices 7% in four of the next six years. This is similar to the current contract.
Under the terms of the proposed contract, VeriSign’s take for each .com registration in 2012 is $7.85 per year. That doesn’t include ICANN’s current “tax” of 18 cents per year.
The company can increase ... read more ...