Monthly Archives: August 2012

Thu 23rd August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Above.com settles lawsuit with Verizon - Company settles cybersquatting lawsuit ahead of trial. Above.com and related parties have settled a cybersquatting lawsuit filed by Verizon. The case was filed in February 2011 and Above.com was served during the DOMAINfest Global conference in Santa Monica. The suit alleged that the defendants used a number of false identities to traffic in trademark-infringing domain names. It alleged the company has registered, used and/or provided Above.com privacy service to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SnapNames releases iPhone App - Bidding on the go now much easier. SnapNames just released an iPhone app to make it easier to bid on SnapNames auctions on the go. The app makes it easier for customers to update bids and see current bidding history from a mobile phone. It does not allow you to place new backorders or bids on domains if you haven’t already done so on the SnapNames web site. However, the app has a quick link to the SnapNames.mobi mobile site. There you can search for new domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oakley finds that UDRP is not a surefire approach to take down a tawdry web site - If a domain name says the goods are fake, that’s not confusingly similar. On the face of it, it might seem appealing for a trademark owner to use UDRP to take down a web site selling counterfeit goods. But trademark holders need to understand that UDRP is for cybersquatting, and not all sites selling counterfeit goods meet the three requirements of winning a UDRP. The latest example is Oakley, which failed to recover the domain name MyFakeOakleySunglasses.com. It’s ... read more ...
Wed 22nd August 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Feds Seize 3 More Domain Names - Homeland Security announced that it has  seized 3 more domain names today. “Seizure orders have been executed against three website domain names engaged in the illegal distribution of copies of copyrighted Android cell phone apps” “The department said that this is the first time website domains involving cell phone app marketplaces have been seized.” “The three seized domain names – applanet.net, appbucket.net and snappzmarket.com – are in the custody of the federal government.  ” “Visitors ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Breaking: Dot-Nxt Cancelled Again? - I have heard from a couple of people scheduled to speak at the Dot-Nxt Conference scheduled for August 29th-31st that the conference has been cancelled. The conference was originally scheduled for June right before the Prague ICANN meeting but was postponed to delays with the roll out of the new gTLD program until next week. We have now gotten confirmation that the conference was cancelled. Monte and I were asked to speak at this conference but passed. Having chatted with a number of applicants, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
NetworkWorld.com: “There Are Plenty Of Good .Com’s Left” - In a post by NetworkWorld.com they disagree with Forbes Assessment that there aren’t enough good .com domains available. We wrote about the Forbes.com story a week ago which highlighted .me domains. In today’s post NetworkWorld.com writes: “”This article in Forbes contends that all of the .coms, or at least those of reasonable length, are used up. The article also contends that the best solution to the perceived lack of .com global top-level domain names (GTLD) is to use a .me extension, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Domain Registrations Point To “Amazon Glacier” Data Storage Product - Amazon registered at least 57 domain names yesterday all involving a product which seems to be called Amazon Glacier. It appears from the domain name registrations to be a data storage product. Here is the list of Amazon registrations: Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Urban Times Moves To UT.co On Sep 19th - For the second day in the row a online media source announced plans to change its URL from a .com to a shorter .Co address Today Urban Times whose URL is theurbn.com writes that effective September 19th, its moving its site to the domain UT.co “Urban Times, which as of 19th September will be redirecting from the vowel-dropping obscurity of  theurbn.com to the simple clarity of urbantimes.co.” “Along with this, we will be launching a shortener of our very own: UT.CO. We have some special ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Elliot Sells His Shares Of Apple & The Stock Sinks - Elliot Silver, of ElliotsBlog.com tweeted back in April that he just bought shares of Apple. Accrdoing to his tweet at the time he wrote , “Bad new if you own Apple stock.  I just made an investment this morning, so my guess is the stock is going to tank” However Elliot tweeted today that he sold his shares in the early morning when Apple was still going up, wound up making over $100+ a share from where he bought it back in April. “Sold AAPL today… not too shabby, eh @thedomains?” You ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
At slightest 38 domains will sell in Dotster auction finale tomorrow - Nearly half of domains in auction have already hit their reserves. It’s genuinely refreshing to see a domain name auction with good quality mid-market domain names and reasonable reserves. That’s how I’d describe the current Dotster auction on SnapNames. With just 24 hours to go, the auction looks like it will be a big success. I count 38 domain names that have met their reserve already. That’s nearly half of the 81 listings. This shouldn’t come as a huge ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.TV and .Me among dual dozen finish user domain sales this week - .tv, .me, and a slurl. This week a .tv and a .me domain were amongst the best end user domain name sales. But before we get into this week’s normal end user sales report, I want to call out a Slurl. Divorce Detox bought the domain name divorcetherapist.com for $995 at Sedo. Now, maybe it’s because of all the media attention to “legitimate rape” this week, but the first thing I read was “Divorce the Rapist dot com”. Therapist is a common slurl word, but ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
North Carolina food smoothness use files UDRP opposite Takeout.com - Local restaurant food delivery service wants a big prize: Takeout.com. Oh, I can’t wait to see the result of this UDRP! A North Carolina company that delivers food from local and chain restaurants has filed a UDRP for the domain name Takeout.com. The complaint was officially filed by Tarheel Take-Out, LLC, which runs the web site TarheelTakeout.com. According to the founder’s LinkedIn profile, he also owns RaleighTakeout.com. Takeout.com was originally registered ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN terminates dual domain name registrars - Two small registrars get the ax. ICANN’s contract compliance efforts with domain registrars seem to go in fits and starts. The past couple months have been active, and this month the company fully terminated two accredited domain name registrars. Just yesterday ICANN sent a notice of termination to Ynot Domains Corp in New York. Ynot was canned for not escrowing registration data and being late on accreditation fees. The registrar was tiny, with just 24 .com domains ... read more ...
Tue 21st August 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Report: IAC Gets Into Bidding War With Answers.com Over About.com & Demand Maybe Interested Too - According to a report from Reuters.com today Bary Diller’s IAC is getting into a bidding war with Answers.com over About.com and Demand Media, Inc. may have interest in About.com as well. Reuters.com is saying that Interactive corp (IAC) submitted an offer in excess of $300 million to buy About.com from the New York Times Co. Answers.com reportedly offered $270 million a week ago. The report says that a “number of companies including Demand Media Inc had proactively approached About.com” “Representatives ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
MIT Rips ICANN’s Over New gTLD Program: “ICANN’s Boondoggle” - MIT just published a post ripping ICANN for what it calls ICANN’s Boondoggle referring to the new gTLD program. “ICANN is itself a monopoly. It has the freedom to mint new gTLDs and incorporate them into the “root zone file,” the master list that matches human-readable URLs (such as www.technologyreview.com) with the numeric Internet Protocol addresses that are used to route packets between computers. And it’s employing this freedom to orchestrate the biggest land rush in the history of ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Afternic.com Sells Almost $1.1 Million in Domain Names - Afternic.com just reported it sales for the week ending August 19th 2012 and recorded sales of $1,072.90. Sales were led by medilert.com for $15,800 which was a domain owned by BuyDomains.com. Here are all the reportable sales:     Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Sedo.com Sells $1.2MM In Domains Led By Work.org for $55K - Sedo.com just announced its sales data for the week ending July 20th, 2012. In all over $1.2MM of domains were sold. The top seller was Work.org at $55,000. Other domains topping the list of public sales were metformina.it for €14,900 and hypnobirthing.de for €8,000. ExpertsBook.com and pof.me each sold for $8,000. In all 720 domains were sold. 38% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. Below is the entire list of publicly reportable sales in their respective currencies: Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
TechCocktail.com Acquires and Switches To Tech.co - According to a post on their site, TechCocktail.com which holds hundreds of events a year announced today they switched their domain name today from TechCocktail.com to Tech.Co. Actually as of today the domain name techcocktail.com now forwards to Tech.co According to their site  “Tech Cocktail is a media company and events organization for startups, entrepreneurs, and technology enthusiasts.” “Since 2006, its goal has been to amplify local tech communities and give entrepreneurs ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Nominet’s purported anti-domainer intrigue and MIT Tech Review on new TLDs - Two domain name articles worth reading. There are a couple recent articles about the domain name industry that are worth reading. The first is Kevin Murphy’s report for The Register about Nominet’s alleged “Plan G”. Under the alleged plan, the .uk registry sought government protection to save itself from a domainer takeover of its board. It’s very intriguing corporate espionage kind of stuff. The report is based on an employment tribunal with its former ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Apps creates .co an choice (and promotes it) - .co front and center with the big three on Google Apps. Google Apps has added .co as a registration option when you open a new account. Given that you can currently register 27 different top level domains with Google Apps, that’s not big news by itself. But much like with many of the top domain name registrars, .co has managed to get Google to promote it. When I tested just moments ago, Google places .co right up there with .com, .net, and .org. You have to click ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainTools suspends “abusive” accounts - Domain data provider takes steps to eliminate abusive and auto generated accounts. DomainTools is taking steps to remove abusive and auto-generated accounts that use its service, company CEO Tim Chen announced on the company’s blog today. Chen explained that the company had previously been lax about closing accounts unless they leaked valuable data or affected site operation. It was concerned about false positives (shutting down legitimate accounts). But apparently ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Monte Cahn settles lawsuit opposite Oversee.net - Long legal battle between Moniker founder and Oversee.net is over. Moniker.com founder Monte Cahn has dismissed his lawsuit against Oversee.net regarding money he said he was owed under a bonus plan. Cahn joined Oversee.net after Seevast sold Moniker to Oversee.net. Cahn left Oversee at the end of 2010. In May 2011 he filed a lawsuit against the company arguing he was due part of a $13 million bonus plan. Having read many of the documents and examinations filed with ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain meetup in Denver this Thursday - Drinks with domainers this Thursday. Mike Law, organizer of the Rocky Mountain Domain Conference and author of NameTalent, is hosting a meetup in Denver this Thursday, August 23. The event kicks off at 7 pm at the Mezze Lounge at the Chlóe, 1445 Market St, Denver 80202. Here’s the itinerary: 7:00-7:15 pm Sign in 7:15-7:25 Welcome remarks, Michael Law 7:25-7:45 Icebreaker activity 7:30-10:00 Open networking Law organized the first Rocky Mountain Domain Conference ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Constituencies blast ICANN’s “closed door” Verisign .com agreement renewal - Groups want explanation for lack of thick whois in contract. Three ICANN entities have signed a letter (pdf) blasting ICANN for its “closed doors” decision to renew the .com agreement with Verisign without requiring thick whois. “Thick whois” refers to a whois in which the registry manages/holds registrant information, rather than each individual registrar. The letter was sent by the At-Large Advisory Committee, the GNSO Business Constituency, and the GNSO ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Visiting Flippa in Melbourne, Australia - Behind every internet company there are some bricks and mortar. Here’s where Flippa lives. My wife had one rule during our trip to Australia over the past two weeks: no business meetings. Unfortunately for her (but good for me) I had already scheduled one before she put the rule in place. So last week I rode the train to just north of downtown Melbourne to visit Flippa. For the uninitiated, Flippa is to the web site selling business as Sedo and Afternic are to ... read more ...