Monthly Archives: October 2012

Wed 31st October 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
BusinessInsider Covers Search .XXX: “Looks like Internet Porn Is Here to Stay & Thanks to Lawley, it’s a Little Bit Safer - BusinessInsider.comjust covered Stuart Lawley CEO of ICM Registry which operates the .XXX TLD, in a story entitled: “Meet The Man Behind The Google Of Porn” Overall the story is quite positive.                                   BusinessInsider writes in part: “Stuart Lawley caught on to that trend and started ICM Registry, a service that lets you register a website that ends in .xxx. It also maintains Search.xxx, a Google-like search engine for finding exactly what you want ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
TLDH: Turning Point Has Been Reached For New gTLD Program & Some Registries Will Be Revenue Producing In 2013 - According to a press release just issued by Top Level Domain Holdings (TLDH) “a turning point has been reached for the timetable for the implementation of the new generic top level domain (“gTLD”) program.” and they expect that certain new registries “are likely to be revenue producing in 2013.” “The first contracts or delegations are expected to be concluded following the next ICANN meeting in Beijing in the second week of April 2013. ” “ICANN’s proposal will give priority to ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Breaking: Rosetta Stone To Drop Its Lawsuit Against Google For Selling Ads Under TM Keywords - According to BusinessWeek.com, Rosetta Stone Inc. (RST), has  agreed to drop a lawsuit it brought against Google Inc. (GOOG) for selling keywords under its trademarks to other companies for search-engine advertising. “The companies agreed that all claims in the infringement case will be dismissed, according to a filing today in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. ” “Google and Rosetta Stone have agreed to dismiss the three-year-old trademark infringement lawsuit between them and to meaningfully ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Shares Of Verisign Are Still Dropping - With the .Com contract still hanging in the wind at the DOJ, share of Verisign (VRSN) continue to fall. Shares of Verisign are currently trading below $37 a share, or at $36.88 which is a new post earning report low. Prior to Verisign earnings report last week and word that the .Com contract which was approved by ICANN back in June without much of any discussion, was held up at the Department of Justice pending their review, shares were trading at over $47. Right after the earnings report and earnings ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
WSJ Covers Case Involving Domain TexasWorkersCompLaw.com Asking “When Is a Domain Name Protected Speech” - WSJ.com law blog, just covered the ruling of the federal appeals court in a case of the domain name TexasWorkersCompLaw.com asking “When Is a Domain Name Protected Speech?” “In 2011, Texas officials demanded that lawyer John Gibson give up the domain name, saying state code prohibits him from pairing “Texas” and “Workers’ Comp.” in connection with his practice. (The regulation, which is meant to guard against deceptive practices, says only the state can use those phrases in combination.)” “Mr. ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
QuinStreet Hits A New All Time Low After Reporting Earnings - QuinStreet, Inc. (QNST), hit an all time low this morning after issuing its earnings report for the quarter ending September 30, 2012 The stock traded as low as $5.66 today and is current trading as of time of publication at $6 a share. At $6 a share the company has a market cap of just $255 million dollars, which is not great for a company with $103 million in cash. Shares of QuinStreet hit an all time high of $23.86 back in Feburary of 2011 QuinStreet bought Insurance.com and CarInsurance.com for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
33 finish user domain sales: TrendMicro, Tufts, Shutterstock, and more - Big companies, small companies, and universities make domain purchases. A broad mix of end users made domain purchases this past week. Afternic The proprietor behind the BetterBaseball.com baseball equipment site expanded with BetterVolleyball.com for $1,250. Home decor company Rowley Company paid $1.888 for InternationalHomeDecor.com. The company behind LocalEats.com, a directory of local (presumably independent) restaurants bought TryLocalFirst.com for $1,000. I ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo .uk auction ends tomorrow - Auction timing is a mixed bag. Sedo’s .uk domain name auction featuring 30 .co.uk and .org.uk domain names ends tomorrow. So far three of the thirty domains have received bids and met their reserves. The top domain is moviedatabase.co.uk at 210 GBP. I spot checked five domains and they were all owned by Sedo subsidiary DomCollect, so this appears to be a house auction. On one hand, the timing for the end of this auction couldn’t be better. The company announced ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ubisoft only wants JustDance.com - Company files UDRP for domain name. [Update: it turns out the domain was owned by Quantec, LLC/Novo Point, LLC, which is the Ondova portfolio in bankruptcy. The case was terminated by the panel.] Ubisoft’s official web site for its popular Just Dance game is just-dance-thegame.ubi.com. That’s a pretty sucky web address, so it’s no wonder that it has filed a UDRP to get the domain name JustDance.com. Before you scream “but it’s a generic”, you can blame ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Two thoughts on $500,000 webhosting.co.uk sale - A mammoth ccTLD sale. Yesterday Sedo domain broker Dave Evanson announced that he had brokered the sale of webhosting.co.uk for $500,000. The buyer, Pawel Ciszewski, doesn’t appear to be new to the webhosting comparison site business. His LinkedIn profile links to a similar site FindMyHosting.com. So Cisznewski knows what he’s doing; he knows what the traffic to the domain and the keyword domain can do. I have two thoughts on this sale. First, congrats to Dave ... read more ...
Tue 30th October 2012
Written by The Domains in EN
Afternic.com Sells $1.25MM In Domains Led By Meechy.com At $60K - Afternic.com just published its report of domain name sales totalling $1,252,279 for the week ending October 28th, 2012. The publicly reportable sales were led by Meechy.com for $60,000 followed by WebVideos.com at $22,500. Below is the complete list of publicly reportable sales: Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Phil Corwin of ICA Quoted In The NationalJournal.com Story on Verisign & .Com Contract - The NationalJournal.com, just published a post of Verisign and the .Com contract. Phil Corwin of the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) was widely quoted in the article: “But industry watchers said that while the contract could undergo further changes, Verisign will likely continue to run .com.” “It is highly unlikely that the contract would be put out for competitive re-bid, as this would open up the possibility of a non-U.S. company receiving the registry contract and could well send Verisign ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Sedo.com Transactions For The Week Total $2.3 Million - Sedo just posted its weekly report for the period ending October 29th, 2012. In all, 892 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totalling nearly $2.3 million. Over 38% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. The $500,000 reported by Dave Evanson for WebHosting.co.uk today is NOT included. Highlights of public sales include: - Top .com: calcio.com at 50,000 EUR - Top ccTLD: webhosting.co.uk at 500,000 USD - Top “other” TLD: manufacturedhomes.net at 14,000 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
After 4 Years The Domain: vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv.com Can Soon Be Your’s - The domain name vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv.com which has been registered for 4 years can soon be yours. The domain name that was registered in 2008 is now in pending delete. With just 62 “v” its rare that such a domain name becomes available and I’m expecting a slew of unsolicited email’s coming my way on this domain this week. The domain name drops on the 31st of October.   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
PayPal Revises Terms: Any Dispute Gets Decided By PayPal & Funds Are NOT FDIC Insured - Paypal.com just announced changes to its user agreement effective November 1, 2012. I know a lot of domainers use paypal to settle domain transactions and wanted to point out several  “changes” in the policy, which could effect your account down the line. This update to the User Agreement effective November 1, 2012 contains changes that affect how claims you and PayPal have against each other are resolved (see Disputes with PayPal below).” “You will, with limited exception, be required ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainHack.er in PL and tagged
Rzecz o domenach narodowych - Liderem zestawienia od wielu lat jest register niemiecki, posiadający ponad 15 milionów zarejestrowanych domen .de. Na drugim miejscu uplasowała się Wielka Brytania (ponad 10 milionów), a na trzecim Holandia (ponad 4 miliony). Dla porównania NASK posiada blisko 2,4 miliona końcówek .pl.Skąd ta popularność?Wysokie liczby w zestawieniu wskazują jednoznacznie na popularność domen narodowych. W kilku przypadkach, np. w Wielkiej Brytanii domeny te są popularniejsze od domeny .com. Przepytani ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Pizza.At Sells For Almost $100,000 - In what’s going to be a head scratcher for some domainers, the domain name Pizza.At sold for 75,000 Euro’s or just over 97,000. .At is the ccTLD for Austria. We will have to check with Ron Jackson to see if this is a record price paid for a .At Domain The domain name sold at Sedo.com   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick Awarded RickNielsen.com By UDRP Panel, But Is It A Correct Decision? - Richard A. Nielsen a/k/a Rick Nielsen, is the lead guitarist, backup vocalist, and primary songwriter for the American rock band Cheap Trick was just award the domain name ricknielsen.com in a UDRP handled by the National Arbitration Forum As I read through the case I got the feeling that had the domain holder had a different attorney he may have gotten a different result. The case cites two other decisions for other famous musicians, one for Mick Jagger and the other for Paul McCartney. While Cheap ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
“UDRP Veterans” urge domain name - Panel says “UDRP Veterans” know what they’re doing. Garry Chernoff of NetIncome Ventures and domain attorney John Berryhill teamed up to successfully defend the domain name Hennessey.com in a UDRP. There are a couple interesting things about this case: 1. If I see a UDRP and the complainant is not who I would have thought it would be, that’s a pretty good sign that the complaint will fail. In this case, when I saw the domain Hennessey.com, I assumed the complainant ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex readies Archeo, though what is it? - Company files trademark application with broad description. Last week Marchex filed an intent-to-use trademark application for “Archeo”. The field of use is so broad that it’s hard to pin down exactly what it’s for. The company has shifted its business to focus on pay-per-call and mobile marketing over the past few years. Here’s how Marchex describes Archeo in its trademark application: IC 035. US 100 101 102. G S: Business services, namely providing computer ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Garage doorway domain evidence goes to court - Garage door wars. A couple weeks ago I wrote about a UDRP in which a panelist who knew little about internet marketing awarded the domain name BoiseGarageDoor.com to a garage door company in Boise. Now the respondent in that case has filed a lawsuit to block the transfer (pdf). It also claims that the UDRP complainant Boise Garage Door, LLC is slandering and libeling it. According to the suit: Upon information and belief, on October 5, Defendant or his counsel left ... read more ...
Mon 29th October 2012
Written by The Domains in EN
After Blowing Through $40 Million, Cash4Gold.com Is About To Be Sold In Bankruptcy Court For $440K - According to Fortune, the company Cash4Gold.com which raised at one point $40 Million in Venture Capital funds is about to be sold, domain and all for around $440,000. The company which had a Super Bowl ad in the 2009 game featuring MC Hammer (who also had some famous financial difficulties) is about to be sold to Direct Holdings Americas, the parent company of Time-Life (which is not affiliated with Time Inc., the publisher of Fortune). “The deal remains subject to bankruptcy court approval, but ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Lawyers snap adult Hurricane Sandy domains - Domain names could be used to get clients upset over insurance settlements. [Update: Monday seemed to be the big day for registrations. I count over 300 domains including “Sandy” registered then.] As Hurricane Sandy heads toward the northeastern united states, people are heading to their domain registrar to register related domain names. While some of those people are just hoping to make a quick buck by selling the domains, others are probably planning to develop ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Backlash rising opposite second turn .uk domains - Existing .uk domain owners upset about plans for second level domains. Earlier this month I reported about .uk registry Nominet and its plan to release second level .uk domains. As of right now you can only register third level .uk domains, such as domain.co.uk. The plan is to allow domains such as domain.uk to be registered. Domains.uk may well be a superior domain, but this isn’t sitting well with current registrants of third level .uk domains. In fact, Nominet’s ... read more ...
Sun 28th October 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN Pays Over $1.5 Million For Director’s Travel & Compensation - ICANN released today the list of compensation and travel expense paid to or on behalf of Directors of ICANN for the fiscal year ending June 2012. “This table represents reimbursements and compensation paid directly to Board Members, payments made to third party vendors such as hotels, restaurants, and travel agencies on behalf of Board Members as well as a total of the three amounts.” Interestingly you will see quite a different amount paid for certain Directors ranging from $0 to well ... read more ...