Monthly Archives: May 2012

Mon 21st May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How NOT to name your association and secure your domain - When you know it’s time to select a different company name… A Colorado company just lost a UDRP for Qwizzle.com, and it’s a great example of botched company naming. The company, Qwizzle, LLC, knew that Qwizzle.com was taken when it came up with its name. It tried to contact the owner of Qwizzle.com but had no luck. It still decided to launch its business as Qwizzle but then filed a UDRP to try to get the domain name. It lost the UDRP because Qwizzle.com was ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
My picks for Sedo’s Great Domains auction - Great Domains auction ends Thursday. Here’s what I like. This month’s Great Domains auction at Sedo ends on Thursday. The lineup doesn’t include as many big ticket domains as usual; there’s only one domain with a reserve over $25,000. But that’s OK, there are some good domains worthy of attention. Here are ones that popped out to me: Reconnect.com – With a reserve range $10k-$25k, this would be good only if you have a plan for the domain. I can think ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain registrar offers UDRP insurance - Registration service offers free insurance against expensive but unfounded UDRP filings. Francois Carrillo, the guy behind Domaining.com, has launched a new domain registrar (an eNom reseller) with an innovative twist: “UDRP insurance”. Basically, if you’re hit with a UDRP on one of your domains registered at DONA.com then you’ll get assistance with finding a domain attorney. Selected domain attorneys offer discounted rates to DONA customers. And if you successfully ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TLDH adds .budapest to the plcae tip turn domains - TLDH adds to its stable of geo top level domains with .budapest. Top Level Domain Holdings Limited (AIM:TLDH.L), parent company of Minds + Machines, announced today that it has applied for the .budapest domain name with the blessing of the city of Budapest. The city will earn a revenue share from the deal. TLDH is also on the applications for .London, .Miami, .Bayern and .NRW. .NRW is for North-Rhine Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany. These applications ... read more ...
Sat 19th May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Did Google only buy G.me? - G.me now registered to brand protection company. The whois record for the domain name G.me recently changed to DNStination Inc., which is the proxy service for brand protection company Mark Monitor: The change was just triggered on DomainTools yesterday, although the record shows it was altered on April 20. The domain name was previously a registry reserved domain name. Although nothing is definitive, there’s a good possibility that Google is the new owner. Google ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain merger email misfire - Received yesterday… Subject: Website Purchase Inquiry Hi, I am interested in setting up a new blogging website on your domain name. My name is Adam and I located your contact information through a domain look up and I understand that you are the owner of DNW.com. I’ve been working in establishing a number of high quality websites for quite some time and think that your domain name fits in perfectly with the blog! In my current situation, I would like to set up ... read more ...
Fri 18th May 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Catching Up With NameJet.com Sales: DomainLoan.com; StyleMaker.com; 3dWorld.com + More - Here are some sales from NameJet.com from this past week: DomainLoan.com $8,200 StyleMaker.com $6,756 AdultWebsites.com $4,655 RainDance.com $4,402 3dWorld.com $4,311 Ktec.com $4,200 DraftingTable.com $3,800 foreclosedrealestate.com $3,800 7833.com $3,600 LandscapeCompany.com $3,121 washingtongolf.com $2,988 BeachLiving.com $2,300 PCNN.com $1,710 ThePosse.com $1,211 ideaology.com $1,112 iRow.com $1,010 Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ZA Central Registry Applies For New gTLD’s: .Africa, .Capetown, .Durban and .Joburg - The ZA Central Registry has applied to administer four new gTLD’s, one for each of South Africa’s three biggest cities and for .Africa. According to a story in on techcentral.co.za, the ZA Central Registry (also known as UniForum) will administer the .Africa domain on behalf of the African community as a whole. Its bid to run the .africa domain system is backed by the .za Domain Name Authority and the Department of Communications. It also has the support of the African Union (AU) and 40 African ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BitTorrent files the possess egghead skill lawsuit - File sharing company files IP lawsuit over trademarks. BitTorrent (and especially its users) are familiar with intellectual property lawsuits. But usually they’re on the receiving end. Now the tables are turned. BitTorrent, Inc. has filed a federal lawsuit in California against BitTorrent Marketing GMBH for trademark infringement and cybersquatting. According to BitTorrent, Inc. founder Bram Cohen, he first became aware of the defendant when it contacted him in ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
From a counsel UDRP mistakes file… - Don’t forget to prove earlier rights if you claim them. Publisher Hidden Values has lost a dispute over the domain name TriangleKidsDirectory.com. Hidden Values publishes the Kids’ Directory. It also has a registered trademark for KID’S DIRECTORY. It’s an admittedly weak mark. It’s even a concurrent use registration that is limited in geographic scope. But, the registrant of the domain name was a former licensee of Kids Directory and published the directory ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
My requisite Facebook IPO post - Every blog is supposed to write about the IPO I’ve got to write one, right? If religious blogs find a way to cover an IPO then a domain blog should, too. I actually have a bit of a domain angle. This morning I googled FacebookIPO.com because I recall seeing something about the domain previously. Here’s the first result: Facebook-IPO.com has no content whatsoever. Google still cares about exact match domain searches, even if it’s on a really esoteric search. ... read more ...
Thu 17th May 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Facebook Prices IPO At $38 A Share With a $104 Billion Market Cap - Facebook priced its IPO at $38 a share, raising $16 billion which will be the third largest IPO in U.S. history and the largest ever IPO by a U.S. technology company. It will start trading tomorrow under the symbol:  FB At $38 a share Facebook is valued at $104 Billion dollars. At $38 Facebook will trade at more than 100x of earnings or PE For comparison sake here are the some market caps PE of some other high tech companies based on today’s closing price: Apple $495 Billion  PE 13 Microsoft ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
With 3 Hours To Go In The SnapNames Showcase Auction Mama.com Has $155K Bid; MovingCompany.com $150K - The SnapNames.com/Moniker Spring Showcase Auction ends at 3:15pm today and as of publication there are 18 domain names that have bids including: Mama.com $155,000 MovingCompany.com $150,000 Sly.com $50,000 None of those domain names have hit reserve. There are 10 domains that have hit reserve and will sell. We wish all the Seller and Bidders the best of luck   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
AriGoldberger Beats Back UDRP on Stage.com, Despite TM, Being Parked & Being Offered For Sale - AriGoldberger just successfully defended a UDRP on the domain name Stage.com, from a complaint brought by Specialty Retailers, Inc.  which owned a trademark on the term “Stage”, despite the fact that the domain name was parked and that the domain holder offered to sell the domain to the Complainant for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Here are the relevant facts and finding by the TWO member panel: “Complainant has used the STAGE mark in commerce since 1969 and has acquired a trademark registration ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Tu.Com Is Sold & Becomes Tu Me - Another two letter .com appears to have changed hands in the last few days. The domain name Tu.com appears to have been sold. The domain was owned by Energy Future Holdings in February 2012, then moved to Trademark Protection firm, MarkMonitor.com in the past month and yesterday became the property of Luis Miguel Sanz Triguero of Telefonica I y D of Madrid. I couldn’t find any press releases  on the domain but Tu.com now describes itself as: The internet is simple. Or at least it should be. We ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker Spring auction results - Moniker auction nets close to $20,000 in sales. The Moniker Premium Spring Auction at SnapNames just concluded. Here are the (unofficial) results: drivinggloves.com 6450 – this is a recently developed site. Auction included Facebook page (with 2,000+ likes) and Twitter handle. florists.info 3050 – good keyword, but not a bad price given how marketplace for secondary TLDs like this will change in coming years. loaninterestrates.com 2000 obese.net 1650 – 5 bidders ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A “monster” acquisition, iPhone 5, and Vanity.com - A look at a few stories I haven’t covered this week… There are a few notable stories in the domain name industry that I missed writing about over the past week, so here’s a quick run down. A “monster” of an acquisition – Mesh Digital, which owns domain name registrar DomainMonster, has been acquired by Host Europe Group for an undisclosed sum. DomainMonster isn’t a huge registrar, but it has proven quite adept at mastering domain registrations when new ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dotster moves domains to Domain.com credentials - Company transfers domains between registrar accreditations. If you start to see domain name registrar Domain.com growing in registrar ranking reports, there’s a good explanation for that. Dotster, which owns Domain.com, has transferred the domain names from its Dotster accreditation to the Domain.com one. I was alerted to this change when I received a DomainTools whois change alert on a friend’s domain name that I helped her register. My first thought was that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oversee.net hires GM for $40M+ transport vertical - Oversee.net hires GM from online travel industry to run its travel network. Oversee.net has hired Raj Beri as General Manager of its travel vertical, the company announced today. Beri was previously Director and COO of IgoUgo, a travel site owned by Travelocity. The travel vertical is part of Oversee.net’s “vertical markets” business that includes fully developed web sites. Oversee.net is best known to domainers for its DomainSponsor domain parking service. Oversee.net’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MLB buys Athletics.com domain name - Major League Baseball makes another big domain acquisition. Just a couple days ago I was revisiting a post I wrote in 2010 about Major League Baseball’s domain names. The only change to the list since I posted was MLB picking up Angels.com. But this week MLB picked up another one. Jamie Zoch of dotWeekly discovered that the league just bought Athletics.com. That leaves just five teams that MLB doesn’t own the “exact” domain name for. Of the remaining domains, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
14 funniest domain registrar names - From dessert names to rather unflattering names, here are 14 odd domain registrar names. People get creative when coming up with domain names. Even registrars sometimes get into the act when naming their registrars. Many registrar names are created by companies creating drop catching registrars. Since they aren’t public facing registrars, they get really creative. Here are some of the more amusing registrar names (both drop catching registrars and regular ones): Afterdark ... read more ...
Wed 16th May 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Wow Now The UDRP Thing Is Officially Crazy As A Complaint Is Filed Against Vanity.com A Fully Developed Site - A complaint was just filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on the domain name Vanity.com. Beyond the fact that an undisclosed complainant is trying to take away a dictionary word domain, the even more shocking part is that the domain name is not parked, not inactive but a fully developed site owned by a company named Vanity.com, Inc. The site has a members area and has sections for Fashion, Beauty, Cosmetic Surgery, well all things about vanity. The case number is 1443435. The ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Moniker/SnapNames.com Brokering FreeSex.com - Moniker® and SnapNames®, announced today that they will exclusively broker the domain name ‘FreeSex.com. Furthermore, this premium domain name will be available for online bids in the Moniker and SnapNames Premium International ccTLD Domain Name Auction starting June 21 and ending July 19, 2012 at 3:15 p.m. Eastern. “Given this domain’s usage of the popular keywords ‘Free’ and ‘Sex’, this highly-recognizable asset will provide the buyer with a means to reach a broad and international ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
The Top 1,000 Most Popular Baby Name List Is Out for 2011 & All .Com’s Are Taken: - The Social Security administration published the most popular 1,000 boy and 1,000 girl baby names for 2011, on Monday. It probably won’t surprise you to find out the all 2,000 .Com domains are taken. Some popular baby names are also the names of cities like Brooklyn and Madison while others are also three letter abbreviations. Yet  if you search through the list you will find many of these baby names used by brands and many are trademarked like “Michael” We ran the list to see who owned the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Intuit buys Apps.net for 24,100 EUR among 25 finish user domain sales - Intuit picks up Apps.net domain name and other notable domain purchases. The biggest name on this week’s end user domain sales report is Intuit. The company (of Quicken and Quickbooks fame) bought Apps.net for EUR 21,400 at Sedo. It already owns Apps.com. It offers Intuit Apps for many of its products. Here are other domain name purchases by end users over the past week. Sedo Ad network Multi-View, Inc. made this week’s big $112,000 purchase of AHHA.com. Travel ... read more ...