Monthly Archives: November 2012

Fri 16th November 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
In a Case of First Impression Lewis & Lin Obtains Attorney Fee Award in Personal Name Cybersquatting Case - In a case of first impression under 15 U.S.C. 8131 , the personal name cybersquatting provision of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), the law firm of Lewis Lin obtained a court order awarding attorneys’ fees as the prevailing party under the ACPA. Section 8131 of the ACPA imposes civil liability on “[a]ny person who registers a domain name that consists of the name of another living person, or a name substantially and confusingly similar thereto, without that person’s consent, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Feng.com Sold For $250,000 - According to a Press release just out the domain name Feng.com just sold for $250,000 “The domain name Feng.com sold for $250,000 in a deal brokered by FindYourDomain.com. The transaction was between two private parties and the sale closed on November 1, 2012.” “We are seeing a higher demand from investors and businesses in China for .com domain names. It seems the market prefers .com over the local .cn extension.” said FindYourDomain Marketing Manager Tom Salbego. “China is the world’s ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Meetme, Inc. Leads Companies From Domain World Making The Deloitte 2012 Technology Fast 500 Rankings - Deloitte published their annual Technology Fast 500™ list, which is an annual ranking of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America. Award winners were selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2007 to 2011. There are plenty of companies on the list that have a relationship to the domain industry or at least have made some high dollar domain purchases: 31. Meetme, Inc. 62. Facebook.com 63. Box 65. Pearl.com 155. ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Tucows Loses Marker.com In UDRP Used By Hover For Personalized Email Addresses - Tucows just lost a UDRP on the domain name Marker.com to Marker Völkl (International) GmbH of Baar, Switzerland The domain name Marker.com is being used by Tucows,  Hover service to provide personalized email addresses. However the one member panel found the fact that since the underlying domain name was also parked that amounted to not legitimate use and bad faith by Tucows It appears Tucows has already filed a lawsuit in Canada over this complaint and therefore the UDRP decision is really of ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
4 Lettered .Com Lost in UDRP Based On TM On Three Letter: OOVH.com - A one member UDRP panel just ruled against the domain holder of OOVH.com based off a trademark on the term OVH which  is an acronym for “On Vous Héberge”, In English this translates as “We Host You”. The Complainant provides webhosting services through dedicated servers, private servers, domain registrations and email services. It business is described more fully at its French language website at “www.ovh.com”. The Complainant claims to be the biggest webhosting provider in France and ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Guest Post: Clarifying Clarifying Financial Questions: What New gTLD Applicants Need To Do To Pass Evaluation - This is a guest post by Phil Buckingham, CEO Dot Advice Ltd. Mr Buckingham was involved at the start of the DNS in the UK in 1995, as CFO of Netnames, the pioneering corporate domain portfolio registrar. Mr Buckingham  was involved in the Financial Evaluation process, served on ICANN’s GNSO Vertical Integration WG. Dot Advice Ltd provides applicant advice and develops fully integrated gTLD financial models, utilising the new vertical integrated market and SRSU brand models. Here is the post: It ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy creates speedier payments for Premium Listings, adds new remuneration options - Premium Listings will now be paid faster and by more than just checks. Go Daddy’s Premium Listing service, which lets you offer domains for sale in the registration path — is a big part of many domainers’ business models. The big drawback has been slow payments, which can take up to 45 days to arrive. Go Daddy is finally speeding up payments and offering more payment options. You can now get your payments by ACH, PayPal, your Good as Gold account, or old fashioned ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
150,000+ domain portfolio sells for $5.2 million - Over 150,000 domains sell at auction for $5.2 million. A portfolio of more than 150,000 domain names has sold in a bankruptcy auction for $5.2 million. Yet that might not be the end of it. The auction was of two separate portfolios and were part of bankrupt firm Ondova. The $5.2 purchase price is 26.8% over the stalking horse bid. The domains had significant traffic and revenue. The first portfolio of about 3,000 premium domains earned close to $400,000 in the 12 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows loses UDRP for Marker.com (but it ain’t over yet) - Domain name already subject to court case. World Intellectual Property Organization panelist David Perkins has ruled that Tucows’ registration of Marker.com is cybersquatting, and the domain should be transferred to Marker Völkl (International) GmbH. Marker Völkl owns the domain name marker.de. But don’t expect the domain name to be transferred to the maker of ski equipment anytime soon. Marker filed the case in July and Tucows sued for declaratory judgment ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Top Flippa domain sales of 2012 - Flippa is making a name for itself in domain sales — not just web sites. You probably know Flippa best as a marketplace for buying and selling web sites. But it’s also an active domain name market. Yesterday I caught up with Flippa CEO Dave Slutzkin. He said they’ve seen an uptick in domain listing recently. Last month Flippa topped 700 domains listed for only the second time and the trend is up even higher this month. Here are some of the non-website sales ... read more ...
Thu 15th November 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Cotton.com Sells For $205,890 On SnapNames.com - The domain name Cotton.com just sold on the SnapNames.com “End of Year Auction” for  $205,890 I would say its the highest sale of a domain in a themed auction for 2012 including any live auctions. There were only 2 bidders in the auction but as we know it only takes 2 bidders to make an auction. The domain name had a reserve range of $100,000-$250,000. At this price it will be ranked as  the 13th largest sale of 2012 according to DnJournal.com Congrats to the seller and buyer. Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN Needs To Come Clean On Kurt Pritz, The Conflict Of Interest & Be Transparent As Promised - In announcing that Kurt Pritz resigned  from ICANN today due to a “recently identified conflict of interest”  ICANN didn’t specify what the conflict was. Apparently Kevin Murphy of Domainincite.com,  reached out to Mr. Pritz who declined to comment and referred him back to ICANN. This is not acceptable. Kurt Pritz was not just ICANN’s Chief Strategy Officer, but for years has been the point man for the new gTLD program. He is one of the highest paid employees of ICANN. ICANN has collected ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Co Launches Exclusive FREE Membership Program Just For .Co Domain Holders - The .Co registry just announced “the public launch of an exclusive membership program, featuring high-value education, networking and promotional support designed to help .CO users to build and grow successful businesses”. “The free program is the first of its kind within the top-level domain industry”. According to the press release. the beta program will be made available to the first 1,000 .CO users who sign up and you can sign up here. (Disclaimer:  I just signed up so there are only ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainHack.er in NL and tagged
.sx vanaf vandaag beschikbaar - Vanaf vandaag is de 'sexy' landencode .sx voor Sint-Maarten beschikbaar voor het grote publiek. Op zich geen groot nieuws, ware het niet dat de ccTLD deels gerund wordt door Belgen. Het eiland Sint-Maarten verwierf een autonome status in 2010, bij het opdelen van de Nederlandse Antillen. Om de economie te kunnen stimuleren, kreeg Sint-Maarten de code SX toegewezen van de internationale organisatie voor standaardisatie (ISO). Met SX Registry ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Namejet.com Super Premium Auction Including Programs.com; Lea.com; Yin.com; 2013.com, Starts Nov 25th - NameJet.com “will be auctioning an exclusive list of more than 200 premium domain names, including 2013.com, Ambitious.com, and PriceMatch.com. These domain auctions begin on November 25, 2012 and run through January 29, 2013. “Rarely do you get the chance to bid on premium domains that have previously not been available for sale at any price,” said NameJet General Manager Matt Overman. “This is an opportunity for individual investors and companies to gain an advantage over their competition ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
SnapNames.com End of Year Auction Ends Today & Has $55,000 In Bids - Snapnames.com End of Year Auction ends today at 3:15pm EST As of time of publication six hours before the end of the auction, 30 od the 185 domain names in auction have bids totaling over $55,000 with 16 of those domain having hit reserve. The domain with the highest bid is VZG.com is at $3,452. Here are all the domains in the auction with the current high bid, number of bidders, reserve range and whether the domain has hit reserve Good luck to all bidders and sellers Domain Name Bidders Current ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Marchex Loses UDRP On PriceShoes.com & Panel Places Additional Burden On “Professional Registrants” - A three member UDRP panel ruled against Marchex who was represented by John Berryhill, on the domain name priceshoes.com, with one panelist filing a dissenting opinion. The complainant is  Administradora de Marcas y Franquicias, S.A. de C.V. which the panel found to own “numerous trademark registrations for PRICE SHOES in various jurisdictions” which were registered years prior to Marchex registration which was back in 2005. The majority of the panel seemed to particular bothered by the fact ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Uh-oh: Pritz out during ICANN over dispute of interest - The face of ICANN’s new TLD program abruptly resigns. Kurt Pritz was the face of ICANN’s new top level domain program. Literally. It was Pritz who defended ICANN on Capitol Hill. It was Pritz who spoke to the press and at conferences. Now he’s gone. In a shocking announcement this morning, new ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé announced that he had accepted Pritz’ resignation. Here’s the full announcement: To the ICANN Community, Regretfully, I have accepted the resignation ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Co launches membership program - Program gives perks to .co domain registrants. .CO Internet has launched a membership program that offers perks to registrants of .co domain names. The program reminds me bit of American Express’ programs for small businesses, although many of the offers with .co are geared squarely at startups. By joining the program at i.go.co, members can score free tickets to startup events, get free co-working space, and free services to promote your web site. There’s also ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo reports earnings: domain parking still a drag, income down 18% - Sedo’s domain parking business continues to struggle. Sedo Holding just reported earnings (pdf) for the first three quarters of 2012, and the message is more of the same: domain parking is still a drag. Overall, Sedo Holding AG grew revenue €98.7 million in the first nine months of 2012. That’s up 7.3% compared to the same period last year. But earnings are struggling, and the domain marketing segment (i.e. Sedo) takes a lot of the blame. Sedo.com generated ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ad network says scammers are impersonating it regulating cybersquatted domain names - Q Interactive says scammers are duping publishers into signing ad agreements. Chicago based online advertising company Q Interactive has filed a lawsuit alleging that someone is impersonating it to dupe web site publishers out of advertising revenue. The unknown perpetrators have used domain names very similar to Q Interactive’s real web address, QInteractive.com, in their scheme. According to the suit (pdf), the scammers have registered the domain names qinteractiveagency.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google and Yahoo among brands regulating insurance with .sx domain names - Some — but not all — major sites protect their brands in .sx. The general availability phase for .sx, a country code domain name for Sint Maarten, begins today. Already a number of large web sites have protected themselves by defensively registering equivalent .sx domain names — a domain that looks awfully close to .sex. I just checked the top 30 web sites in Quantcast to see if they were registered by their respective brand owners. This is easier said than ... read more ...
Wed 14th November 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Tucows.com Opens Up 25% - Following last night’s earnings release and the news that it was launching a tender offer to purchase 6.5 million shares between $1.35 and $1.50, as predicted shares rocked up. As of 9:45 this morning just 15 minutes into the trading day shares of Tucows are trading at $1.37 up almost 25%. Shares have traded as high as $1.41 Shares closed at $1.12 yesterday. The stock buy back program takes place over the next 20 days. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
With Less Than 3 Hours To Go Sedo’s .Pro Auction 60 Domains Have Bids - Sedo.com .Pro auction closes today at Noon EST. There are 179 domain names in the auction. As of time of publication with less than 3 hours to go 60 of the 179 domains have bids with 15 of them having hit the reserve price. Leading the way is Video.Pro which is currently the only domain to hit the four figures with a bid of $1,550 Here is a list of all the 179 domain, including high bid as of publication, number of bidders, and the reserve range. Good luck to all     Domain Reserve High Bid Reserve ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DailyBeast Says .XXX Has Made “Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars” But The Math Just Doesn’t Work - The DailyBeast.com just published a story entitled: “How .XXX, Porn’s Domain Name, Made Hundreds of Millions” “”CM has sold just short of 230,000 “.xxx” URLs, according to official data from ICANN. That’s five times more than the company expected when it first filed with ICANN. Indeed, in his original business plan, Lawley’s best case scenario was reaching 250,000 names after five years. The company has amassed more than 70 worldwide resellers, middlemen like GoDaddy, who have pumped ... read more ...