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 18th April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
15 Fortune 100 companies have domains that end this year - American Express’ domain expires in about six weeks. Here are other companies that need to pay attention. Regions Bank, part of a Fortune 500 company, let its domain name registration expire over the weekend. As a result, thousands of customers were unable to conduct online banking transactions. Generally, when a domain expires and is taken offline, that also means emails to and from employees won’t be delivered as well. In other words: letting your domain expire ... read more ...
 
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Name.space sends lawsuit opposite ICANN over new TLDs to Court of Appeals - Company that offers domain names in alternative root pushes forward with legal challenge. Alternative root company name.space isn’t letting its beef with ICANN die just yet. The company has filed an appeal (pdf) with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after its suit against ICANN was tossed out by a lower court last month. Name.space offers domain names in an alternate root, and applied to ICANN in 2000 to add 118 of its domains to the “real” ... read more ...
 
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Paul.com fights PaulDotCom.com over trademark - Two techies fight over “Paul Dot Com”. The owner of Paul.com is fighting the PaulDotCom security podcast over the latter’s attempt to trademark “PAULDOTCOM”. In November 2011, Paul Asadoorian filed a trademark application for PAULDOTCOM, the name he uses for his IT security podcast hosted at PaulDotcom.com. Once the mark was published for opposition, the owner of Paul.com filed a challenge with the USPTO Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). Paul Niedermeyer ... read more ...
 
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After announcing new name, 21st Century Fox files UDRP - Company goes after 6 domains related to new brand. Last week I scooped that 20th Century Fox would be changing its name to 21st Century Fox thanks to some domain name registrations. One of the big questions remaining questions is how the company will get the domain name 21stCenturyFox.com, which was registered in 1997. Well, the company has turned to UDRP to recover some domains related to 21st Century Fox – but it’s not for 21stCenturyFox.com (at least yet). The ... read more ...
Wed 17th April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Here’s a genuine reason people hatred a domain industry - You don’t need a survey to uncover the real reason people despise the domain industry. DomainIncite is reporting that next week’s new TLD launch party in NYC has been canceled, and instead ICANN will meet with registrars and registries to discuss improving the image and professionalism of the domain name industry. The discussions follow the not-so-startling confirmation that people perceive the domain industry in a negative light. There are certainly a number ... read more ...
 
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Forward U.S. bought domain for $1,500 - New immigration reform group bought .us domain for $1,500 at Sedo. Forward U.S., the new immigration reform group led by companies including Facebook, Google, and PayPal, paid $1,500 for its domain name.The new immigration reform group that Ron Jackson wrote about last week paid $1,500 for FWD.us. That’s just one of the end user sales that Sedo made last week. It had a big week, closing nearly $2 million in sales. Here are some of its other end user sales. SumUp, ... read more ...
 
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Go Daddy proves it’s a tech company, though not with the commercials - Recent moves by new CEO Blake Irving show the company’s path forward. If you ask the typical person on the street what Go Daddy is about, they’ll probably say something about sexy Super Bowl commercials. Last year the company decided to change that image and show people that it was a serious tech company. It advertised its tech prowess on various blogs and hired ad agency Deutsch to produce new commercials, culminating in the Bar Rafaeli “kiss” commercial ... read more ...
 
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What domains Pfizer and 24 others bought final week - Pfizer is among the big companies buying domains last week. Afternic sold slightly less than $1 million worth of domain names last week. Here are some of the end users who bought domains through the service. Czech Republic beverage company The Drinks bought TheDrinks.com for $1,500. Its main web site is TheDrinks.cz. Open Lease Software shortened its web address from OpenLeaseSoftware.com to OpenLease.com for $2,250. Core Merchant, a merchant services company, bought ... read more ...
Tue 16th April 2013
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Review: Taking IP Neighborhood for a Test Drive - IP Neighborhood combines a number of valuable tools for domain name investors. IP Neighborhood compiles valuable domain data at a low monthly price.Last month Ron Jackson profiled IP Neighborhood, a new service by Simon Johnson. The profile piqued my interest because it described tools on IP Neighborhood that are similar to those of DomainTools. And with IP Neighborhood’s low price point (I just signed up for the $19.95/month plan), it could be a good alternative ... read more ...
 
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1&1 ditches .mail, keeps .gmx (for now) - One of seven applicants for .mail top level domain withdraws its application. 11 Mail Media GmbH has withdrawn its application for the top level domain .mail in the wake of receiving two formal objections against its application. It’s not clear if the objections were part of the company’s rationale for dropping its application. There seven applicants for .mail, including heavyweight Google. Both the United States Postal Service and Universal Postal Union objected ... read more ...
 
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Yep, it’s 21st Century Fox - As I predicted, News Corp announces 21st Century Fox. News Corp today announced that its entertainment business will be called 21st Century Fox. Over the weekend I was willing to bet money that 21st Century Fox was in the works. My suspicions started on April 10 when 20th Century Fox registered a number of domain names including 22ndCenturyFox.com, 23rdCenturyFox.com, etc. Just a defensive branding play? Perhaps, but then over the weekend I noticed that the company ... read more ...
Mon 15th April 2013
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Google beats Google in UDRP - Company wins case against spoofer. It’s pretty easy to spoof someone else in a whois record, and a recent UDRP is a case in point. Officially, Google Inc. prevailed over Google Inc. in a UDRP for the domain GoogleDNSService.com. When you first look at the whois record for this domain you might assume it’s owned by Google: The name, phone, and address are all those of Google. But you’ll notice that the email address, dns-admin@googlednsservice.com, differs from ... read more ...
 
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SnapNames no haven auction ends Thursday - Three auctions are running on SnapNames. SnapNames has three auctions running this month, and the first one ends Thursday. SnapNames’ “April Deals” auction ends Thursday, April 18. The auction includes just 44 domains and all have no reserve (but a $199 minimum bid). So far three domains have bids, including WorkToDo.com, CashCrash.com, and KindGift.com. Most of the domains are brandable, such as BuzzIncome.com, BeyondCeleb.com, and ScienceGo.com. Next, the ... read more ...
 
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Final new TLD conflict tally: Donuts 55, Amazon 24, Google 22 - Three of the largest applicants for new TLDs are facing a mountain of objections. Donuts, Amazon, and Google have the dubious honor of having the most objected-to applications for new top level domains. There were 263 formal objections to new top level domains, and that doesn’t include GAC advice. Donuts received 55 objections covering 45 unique objections, which means about one out of seven of its 307 applications are facing an objection. 24 of Donuts’ objections ... read more ...
Sun 14th April 2013
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Hmm… Perhaps 20th Century Fox unequivocally is rebranding to 21st Century Fox - Latest domain registrations suggest movie studio might rebrand to 21st Century Fox. Last week I wrote about how movie studio 20th Century Fox had registered domains to protect itself for the next millennium: It registered domains from 22ndcenturyfox.com up to 29thcenturyfox.com. At the time I figured it was just an over-the-top defensive domain registration campaign. But now that more domain registrations have come to light, I’d up the odds that 20th Century Fox ... read more ...
Fri 12th April 2013
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What domain JetBlue bought and a $120,000 finish user domain sale - JetBlue pays little for a domain, but another end user pays dearly. Sedo’s headline $120,000 sale of ConnectNow.com last week was (of course) to an end user. JetBlue also bought a domain through the service. Here’s a list of end user sales on Sedo last week. American Association of Young People bought yet another domain, Young-People.com, for $1,250. Cargill acquired the domain Cargill.kr for 1,200 EUR. Payment processing company First Data Corporation recently ... read more ...
 
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26 finish user domain sales - Here are 26 sales to end users on the Afternic platform last week. Before jumping into the Afternic end user sales report, take a look at the details behind Afternic’s biggest reported sale of the week. It sold TribalWars.com for $34,910 to the company that tried to take it with a UDRP a couple years ago. Here are other end user sales from Afternic: Quicken Loans bought QuickenRealty.com for $1,277. It recently bought RocketLoan.com for $4,500, too. Prosight Specialty ... read more ...
 
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Ticket Broker loses French Open domains - French Tennis organization awarded 13 domain names used by ticket broker. A UDRP panel has ordered ticket broker Ticketfinders International LLC to transfer 13 domain names to Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT). FFT is the governing body for tennis within France. It also holds trademarks for the French Open, which is also called the Roland Garros tennis tournament and is played at Roland Garros Stadium. Ticketfinders didn’t formally respond to the complaint, ... read more ...
 
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After losing UDRP, association pays NameMedia $34,910 for TribalWars.com - I bet legal fees were included in this sales price. The top sale on this week’s Afternic domain sales report is TribalWars.com at $34,910, and it’s an interesting one. The buyer, Innogames, has an MMORPG called TribalWars. In 2011 Innogames filed a UDRP against NameMedia (technically against BuyDomains) for the domain. It lost. Now, two years later, Innogames has finally realized that if it wants a good domain is simply needs to pay for it. Innogames has gone ... read more ...
 
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Demand Media passes a new TLD Initial Evaluation - Company passes initial evaluation despite rule about UDRP losses. Demand Media’s new top level domain company, United TLD Holdco, has passed the initial evaluation stage on one of its TLD applications. The company passed the initial evaluation for Fish.com .fishing today. Demand Media was the biggest question mark amongst big-name TLD applicants with regards to if it would pass initial evaluation. Part of the initial evaluation is the background check, and passing ... read more ...
 
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Bidding on MD.org tops $500,000 during NameJet - Two letter .org domain goes sky high. [Update: ‘winters’ one the auction for $555,650] Two bidders are determined not to walk away from a NameJet auction for MD.org without their prize. Bidding for the domain, which will end within a few minutes of either bidder giving up, topped $500,000 at 12:31 PM PDT. Bidders ‘winters’ and ‘freedotcom’ are the only two participating since a $35,000 bid by ‘time25′ at 11:15 am. As for why the domain is worth so ... read more ...
 
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ICANN announces 263 new TLD objections on final list - 263 total objections filed against new top level domain applications. As per the requirements of the applicant guidebook, ICANN has published a list of all new top level domain objections accepted for consideration. Below is a summary. You can learn more about how these objections will proceed here. String Confusion 67 objections based on string confusion were filed. The top objector was Commercial Connect LLC, which has applied for .shop. It has objected to 9 IDNs ... read more ...
Thu 11th April 2013
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How to learn some-more about your customer on Sedo - Video explains how to learn more about who placed an offer on your domain at Sedo. So you received an offer on Sedo, and you’d like to know who’s making the offer? One of the benefits to buyers of using an exchange like Sedo is anonymity. But Sedo does provide some information about the buyer. In most cases you can figure out if the buyer is an end user or another domainer. In this video, I’ll explain the four pieces of information Sedo providers to sellers ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The story behind .Vegas - The story of how Dot Vegas, Inc. won the battle for .vegas and how it plans to bring the TLD to market. I recently met Dustin Trevino, CFO of Dot Vegas, Inc., and learned more about the company’s plans for the .Vegas top level domain. In this interview, the company explains the effort it undertook to get city approval for the .vegas top level domain, and reveals that it quietly obtained the blessing of Nevada’s then-governor for its bid. DNW: When did you start ... read more ...
Wed 10th April 2013
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Video: how to set adult and use two-factor authentication during GoDaddy.com - Video gives step-by-step instructions for increasing security in your Go Daddy account. Two-factor authentication is one of the best ways to make any online account more secure. Go Daddy introduced two-factor authentication for its United States customers last year. Once you set up the service you will receive a text message every time you log in to your account. In addition to your username and password, you need to enter a six digit code from the text message in ... read more ...