Author Archives: DomainNameWire

About DomainNameWire

Domain Name Wire is a blog that deals with the domain name sector. The blog covers a range of domain related topics ranging from issues concerning expiring domains, monetization, domain registries and registrars, ICANN, policy, law etc. The blog began in March, 2005, after Mr. Allemann had dropped out of meetings to become involved in domain portfolio company, iREIT. The project began as a hobby to keep him involved in the domaining business, and then became his full-time business.

Thu 30th May 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Financial organisation and new TLD applicant buys IG.com domain name - Company that applied for seven new TLDs buys a coveted two letter domain name. UK Financial firm IG Group has acquired the domain name IG.com, which was previously used by a Brazilian search portal. According to IP Pro The Internet, the company announced the deal to the press, although I can’t locate the actual announcement nor any information about the deal other than the IP Pro article. Even the IP Pro article does not yet appear to be indexed in Google. Nonetheless, ... read more ...
Wed 29th May 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Club applicant seeks to lift adult to $7 million - .Club Domains, LLC files Form D with SEC. .Club Domains, LLC, an applicant for the .club top level domain name, has filed a Form D with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as it seeks to raise up to $7 million. The filing states that none of the money has been raised so far, and the company is considering both equity investments and debt. .Club Domains, LLC is lead by CEO Colin Campbell, who has built a number of successful internet companies. According to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company sues NamingRights.com, and it’s kind of interesting - I haven’t heard the name Backslap Domains in a while. Greek Island Labs, a company that sells cosmetic products, has sued NamingRights.com and Backslap Domains for cybersquatting* over the domain name Adonia.com (pdf). Greek Island Labs sells products under the Adonia name, and says it has done so since 2008. Adonia is the name of an ancient festival, so on the face of it the domain is generic. Of course, that hasn’t stopped companies from filing cybersquatting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Luxembourg’s .lu domains can now be sealed for a year in disputes - .Lu provides new lock in case of domain dispute. Country code operators are not required to offer a cybersquatting resolution service, although many adopt some form of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). Luxembourg takes a more hands of approach. But starting next month it will implement a locking option to stop a domain from being transferred while in dispute. The lock has an initial one year period and can be extended. Here’s how the registry ... read more ...
Tue 28th May 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
On daub this week: Vegas Baby, Vegas! - Domain industry heads to Las Vegas this week. As the U.S. trudges back to work and school after a three day weekend, many in the domain name industry are headed to Las Vegas for the TRAFFIC conference. Although the conference doesn’t start until Wednesday, many went early to soak in the sun and hit the blackjack tables. Formal festivities start Wednesday evening with the kick-off happy hour. Panels and presentations start Thursday morning. The first panel discusses ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media wants to heading name for domain name heading insurance service - New TLD applicant files trademark applications fro DPML. Demand Media subsidiary United TLD has filed six trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office related to its proposed Domain Protected Marks List (DPML). Three of the applications are for the full term “Domain Protected Marks List ” and the other three are for “DPML”. The applications were filed on an intent-to-use basis on May 15. The DPML is a service that would let trademark holders ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo pulling new TLD services - Company releases brochure and starts more heavily marketing its new TLD capabilities. Sedo is starting to more aggressively promote services to new top level domain applicants, including adding a couple ad banners targeting them on its home page. The company’s four page “Sedo New gTLD Services” brochure (pdf) highlights services the company provides prior to launch, during sunrise and landrush, and after a domain fully launches. Ahead of launch, Sedo will help ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Girl.me gets $30,000 bid during Sedo - An eye-popping price tag, but many .me domains have sold in this price range. The domain name Girl.me has a $30,000 offer at Sedo and has been sent to an auction. Although errant bids sometimes occur on Sedo, my guess is this is legit. In order to place a bid of $10,000 or more you need to submit a number of documents, including a bank statement or utility bill and a copy of a government issued photo ID. Besides, $30,000 for Girl.me isn’t an outlier. True, most ... read more ...
Fri 24th May 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afternic’s large proclamation and 22 finish user sales - Afternic signs a big distribution agreement. Before jumping into this week’s list of Afternic end user sales, Afternic made a big announcement today. It inked a deal with Directi to sell its premium domains through Directi’s registrars. This means Afternic has deals with 9 of the top 10 domain registrars. OK, on to the sales. Education advocacy group Achieve, Inc. bought BusinessandEducation.com for $2,488. Online education company ePals bought ToolsforSchool.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
17 finish user domain name sales from Sedo final week - Some expensive spring chickens and a cruise company were among last week’s end user domain name buyers at Sedo. Here’s a selection of end user domain sales from Sedo last week: A UK company called Spring Chicken Direct Limited bought SpringChicken.co.uk for a whopping 12,000 GBP. Online game company Greentube Internet Entertainment bought Greentube.it for 1,500 GBP. Its website is greentube.com IFN.com, which offers a toll free forwarding business, bought LiveAgent.co.uk ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media commits 5 TLDs to private auctions, though 3 are passed on arrival - Demand Media throws five domains into private auction ring, but three are against competitors who won’t participate. Demand Media subsidiary United TLD has committed five of its applied-for top level domains to the first private domain auctions to be handled by Peter Cramton. The five domains are .fishing, .green, .mom, .rip, and .wow. Donuts recently committed 63 domains to the same auction. In order for an auction to take place, all applicants for the string must ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Aftermarket.com to mix parking and selling - Thought Convergence’s domain marketplace will integrate domain parking and the company has switched ad feed providers. Aftermarket.com, the domain name sales platform by Thought Convergence, is getting ready to launch a combined parking and selling platform. In a blog post today, the company said it will start offering a parking platform integrated into Aftermarket.com. Domain owners will be able to park their domain names and funnel purchase inquiries through Aftermarket.com. Although ... read more ...
Thu 23rd May 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bargain.com domain name sells for $150,000 - After many times on the auction block, Bargain.com finally sells. Bargain.com sold for $150,000 during the Hilco Streambank auction yesterday. There was only one bidder for the domain. Bargain.com had been offered for sale previously through both Sedo and Moniker, but with a much higher asking price. The last time it was offered at a Moniker auction it had a reserve price of over $750,000. The lot also included the common typo Bargin.com. Also selling in the auction ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bill Sweetman unveils Name Ninja - Name Ninja to provide wide variety of domain name services including domain portfolio management, domain acquisition, and new TLD strategy. Domain consulting firm NameNinja formally launches today.Former Tucows executive Bill Sweetman formally unveiled his domain name consulting shop today. Name Ninja will offer services to three core groups: startups, entrepreneurs and marketers; individual and corporate domain name owners; and new gTLD registries and operators. Sweetman ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Who’s this new GoDaddy girl? - GoDaddy.com has replaced Danica Patrick with a real small business customer. For most of last five years, GoDaddy girl Danica Patrick has graced the GoDaddy.com home page. Over the past few months GoDaddy has tried a couple different approaches, as you can see at Screenshots.com. Today there’s a new home page design with another “girl”, but she’s not a celebrity spokesperson. She’s a real small business customer. Sindy Alexandra, a stay at home mom and photographer, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Home and .Corp are not a usually shabby TLDs that now get queried - They’re not as big, but several applied-for TLD strings get invalid queries. ICANN is investigating internal names used by corporations and how they might conflict with applied-for top level domains. .Home and .Corp are frequently among the top 10 queried invalid top level domains, but they aren’t the only ones. ICANN hosts a page that shows invalid TLD queries. It seems to time out if you expand the timeframe to more than one day, so it’s hard to get a grasp ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ron Paul loses disputes over RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org domain names - Former politician denied relief in dispute over two Ron Paul domain names. [Update: Paul found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in RonPaul.org case.] Ron Paul has lost two separate domain name disputes filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization. The two cases covered RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org, and were part of a public spat between the domain owners, who say they are Ron Paul supporters, and the politician. The owner of RonPaul.com offered to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Breaking: Ron Paul found guilty of retreat domain name hijacking - Former congressman guilty of reverse domain name hijacking, says WIPO panel. Earlier today I wrote about how Ron Paul lost both of his domain disputes brought before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The disputes were filed against RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org and were both heard by the same arbitration panel under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). The panel ruled that in the case of RonPaul.org, former congressman Paul is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Applicants record 722 responses to GAC advice - Applicants flood ICANN with responses to GAC advice on new top level domains. ICANN has published applicant responses to the Governmental Advisory Committees “Advice” on new top level domains. 722 responses were filed in total. Many applicants submitted the same comment on each TLD they believed was affected by the advice. The overarching theme in responses was: we have what we believe are adequate protections for our strings, the GAC should not be concerned, ... read more ...
Wed 22nd May 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Half of tiny business owners not confident with their domain name - …and half believe they’ve lost business as a result. .Co released some new research this morning regarding small businesses and domain names. The research was carried out by Wakefield Research and asked questions about domain names to companies with 100 or fewer employees. Here are some of the interesting take-aways: – 45% of small business owners don’t have a website or blog for their company. (That spells opportunity, my friends.) – 49% of those with a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Here’s what ICANN’s house motionless on Saturday - Board passes resolution that might delay certain new TLDs and approves a new UDRP provider. While most of us were hanging with our families or on the golf course this weekend, ICANN’s board was approving a number of resolutions that could have a big affect on some parts of the domain name industry. Here’s what the board decided: Some new TLDs may be delayed or rejected based on internal name conflicts. ICANN is going to further investigate the potential for security ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Must reads: a pro who’s fervent to sell domains, a gift auction, and a intelligent rebrand - Eric Borgos on why he’s selling domains, help the tornado victims, and a “cool” rebranding. Here are a few domain stories I read today that I think are worth reading. Eric Borgos has published an interesting perspective about 10 Reasons Why I Am Eager To Sell My Domains. Last year Borgos’ company had sales of $1.25 million, and domain sales were the company’s largest source of income. Elliot Silver, DomainBoardroom.com, and Escrow.com have teamed up for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Over 1,000 XBox One domains purebred yesterday - Microsoft’s big product launch followed by a flurry of domain registration activity. Yesterday Microsoft announced its latest video game console called XBox One. Immediately, cybersquatters went to work. Over 1,000 XBox One related domain names were registered in .com alone yesterday. To be sure, some of those registrations were by Microsoft itself. But the vast majority were by other parties hoping to capitalize on the latest video game system in the XBox franchise. Some ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Intellectual skill counsel guilty of retreat domain name hijacking - Los Angeles attorney who practices trademark law found guilty of abusing UDRP proceedings. A three person World Intellectual Property Organization panel has found an intellectual property lawyer guilty of attempting to engage in Reverse Domain Name Hijacking and bringing a UDRP complaint in bad faith in abuse of the administrative proceeding. Los Angeles lawyer Frank Michael Weyer filed the case against the owner of iShades.com. The owner of iShades.com registered ... read more ...
Tue 21st May 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
An essay that will assistance we tighten some-more domain sales - Article on Forbes.com about domain names and startups is worth bookmarking to refer potential domain buyers to as a reference. David Teten, a partner with ff Venture Capital, has published the second part of a story on Forbes.com about startups and domain names. It’s a good primer on how companies can get creative when acquiring domain names. It explains how one of ff Venture Capital’s portfolio companies, Plated, worked out a lease with an option to buy Plated.com: Buying ... read more ...