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.

Wed 10th April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
20th Century Fox prepared for 21st century with domain registrations - Company registers domain names of current and future centuries. When 20th Century Fox (aka Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation) was founded in the 1930s I’m sure it seemed like a great name. But now that we’re in the 21st century, doesn’t the name seem a little old fashioned? Like Prince talking about partying like it’s 1999? Although this isn’t necessarily indicative of a name change, the entertainment company recently registered names that will get ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CitizenHawk sued after promulgation dual stop & terminate letters - Man sues domain recovery firm after receiving two cease desist letters. A San Diego man has sued typosquatting recovery firm CitizenHawk after receiving two cease desist letters. Michael Eddy says he received letters regarding USSearchReports.com and Naturalizes.com. The first letter said USSearchReports.com infringes the rights of Intelius’ mark for “US Search.com”. The second said that Naturalizes.com infringes the rights of Brown Shoe Company’s mark for ... read more ...
Tue 9th April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Spend only 60 seconds and never get a $60 offer on Sedo again - Video explains how to bulk edit your domain listings on Sedo to set a minimum bid amount for your entire account. Ah, the dreaded $60 offer on Sedo. You know the feeling. You get an email saying you’ve received an offer on your domain. Excitement UP. Then you see it’s for $60. Excitement DOWN. It sounds like Sedo has received the message, as it has made setting a minimum offer price part of the domain listing process. But what about for the thousands of domains ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oops…U.S. Government lets Medicaid.com expire, now in private hands - Domain expired in January and wasn’t renewed despite plenty of warning. The official site for Medicaid, the U.S. health program for lower income families and individuals, is Medicaid.gov. But you can bet many people looking for information about the program type in Medicaid.com instead of .gov. Up until January 29th, the U.S. government helpfully forwarded Medicaid.com to Medicaid.gov… Then it let the domain expire. Last month Tennessee company Medx Publishing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts raises some-more supports during double a valuation - Donuts raises more dough to pursue new top level domains. Donuts Inc., which applied for 307 top level domain names, has raised new funding. The company did not disclose the amount of funding in the new round, but the valuation doubled compared to the series A round. Donuts had previously raised about $100 million. The company says the oversubscribed round “nearly doubles our capacity to compete”, although I wouldn’t read into that that it raised another $100 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
eBay patents a exit cocktail adult window - Company gets patent for way to deliver a pop up window when you leave a web site. It was once a favorite advertising tool and then a popular last-ditch effort from internet marketers. Yes, I’m talking about the exit pop up. When you leave a site for good, the site sends one last goodbye…one last drop of monetization…one last effort to make you do something…a pop up window. eBay was just awarded United States Patent 8,418,078 (pdf) for “Method and system ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLD field wish we to know they have lots of money for auctions… - But just how much? They don’t want you to know. Donuts new funding round “doubles its capacity to compete” in new TLD auctions. What does that mean?Last night when I received Donuts’ press release about a follow on investment I had to re-read it a few times. While the press release didn’t divulge exactly how much the company raised, it did say that the new funds “nearly doubles our capacity to compete” in new TLD auctions. The company previously announced ... read more ...
Mon 8th April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Internet tops 250 million domain names - Verisign says milestone reached at end of 2012. There are now more than 250 million domain names registered, according to Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief. The company reports that there were 252 million domains registered at the end of 2012. That number grows every day. But the total universe of paid registrations is less than that. Verisign notes that with .tk, which is mostly free, the year-over-year domain name registration growth rate is 11.8 percent. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Craigslist sues CraigsTruck.com - Classifieds site takes issue with delivery service’s name. Online classifieds site Craigslist has filed a federal lawsuit against a Washington company that offers delivery services under the name Craigstruck.com. Craigslist alleges that Craigstruck.com is infringing its trademarks and using its name to get more business. Craigstruck.com matches people who have a truck and are willing to move stuff with people that need something moved. It promotes itself as service ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Canadian justice orders association compensate costs over prejudicial domain claim - George Kirikos gets big court victory; judge orders defendant pay costs. A Canadian court has ordered Micys Company pay $4,512.45 to George Kirikos’(Leap of Faith Financial Services Inc stemming from a UDRP it filed against the domain name Pupa.com. Micys filed a UDRP against Pupa.com last year with World Intellectual Property Forum. Micys runs the site Pupa.it, where it sells cosmetics and fashion accessories. Kirikos decided to sue Micys in Canadian court, which ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
California seat seller files fit over UrbanHome.com - Second lawsuit filed after UDRP decision. The legal expenses are mounting on this one. Urban Home, the California furniture maker that filed a UDRP on UrbanHome.com, has now filed a federal lawsuit in California to try to get the domain name. The suit is in response to UrbanHome.com’s owner, Technology Online, filing suit in Nevada to halt the transfer of the domain name. The WIPO panel found in favor of Urban Home. Technology Online decided to sue to stop the transfer. I’m ... read more ...
Fri 5th April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Jobs expected to be initial “new TLD” to launch this year - It’s not really “new”, but .jobs is likely to beat other TLDs to the market later this year. Forget prioritization draw numbers, new TLD objections, and contention sets: .jobs may be the first “new TLD” to be available for registration this year. It’s not really a “new” TLD. .Jobs is a sponsored top level domain that was entered into the root in 2005. But it was initially heavily restricted. Companies could only register domains that matched their ... read more ...
Thu 4th April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
U.S. Department of Commerce not ancillary USPS conflict to .mail tip turn domains - Department of Commerce not backing .mail objections. Lawrence Strickling, U.S. Department of CommerceLast week I wrote about how the United States Postal Service filed objections to all of the top level domain applications for .mail. It’s a big waste of money, as in order to prevail the USPS would have to show it has some sort of legal rights to the term “mail”. ICANN just published a letter from Lawrence Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google objects to 9 plural tip turn domain applications - Google and Verisign file most objections (so far) against TLDs on string similarity grounds. The International Centre for Dispute Resolution has published 33 of the string confusion objections it has received, representing about half of the total. One of the biggest filers so far is Google, which has objected to at least 9 applications. All of the objections are against applications for the plural version of domains it has applied for. ICANN’s String Similarity ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Right of a Dot posts response to private TLD auction antitrust claims - Company says private auctions do not automatically violate U.S. antitrust law. Last month new TLD applicant Uniregistry published a press release that announced it would not participate in private auctions for new TLDs due to anti-trust concerns. It based its decision on a verbal conversation with the Department of Justice. The press release also suggested that “paying off” other new TLD applicants might run afoul of the law. The release generated an immediate ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.WTF: .Lotto, .Weather, .Game, .Retirement strike with objections - Seriously, WTF? International Chamber of Commerce has posted more community and limited public interest objections on its web site. On the surface, these look to be quite misdirected. Afilias’ application for .lotto has been hit with a community objection filed by European State Lotteries and Toto Association. That’s a group that represents lotteries and gambling companies in Europe that benefit the state. Then there’s Accuweather’s community objection to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apparently Verisign is value a same with or but cost hikes - Company’s market cap is back up to October levels. Just as I don’t understand why the DOW has been hitting all time records lately, I also don’t understand this: Verisign is apparently worth the same with or without seven-percent-a-year price hikes on .com. When Verisign dropped the bomb on October 25 that the Department of Commerce was reviewing its ability to automatically increase prices, the company had a marketcap of about $7 billion. Verisign signed a ... read more ...
Wed 3rd April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domains DropBox and 15 other companies bought final week - Dropbox buys an India ccTLD and other end user domain sales. Sedo sold 704 domains for over $1.25 million last week. I’ve identified 16 of the publicly reported sales as end user sale. There are certainly more, but these are the ones that stood out to me. Webbs Garden Centres bought webbs.co.uk for 995 GBP. It now forwards to WebbsDirect.co.uk. pair Networks, Inc., a frequent aftermarket domain buyer, bought PairMail.com for $800. Jackpot Gaming Limited in London ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Verisign raise on effect - Last week Verisign dropped a bomb on ICANN by releasing a report that said that ICANN was not yet ready for the rollout of new top level domains. Critics have suggested that Verisign has financial motives for slowing out the rollout of new TLDs, and they’re likely correct. Regardless of what Verisign’s motives are, and even regardless of the merit of its concerns, the report causes significant damage to ICANN. Call it the “pile on” effect. Because Verisign ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top 5 contingency review domain articles from March - Here are the top five stories from Domain Name Wire last month. March saw the first batch of new TLD objections, a warning from Verisign, and a high profile company found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. 1. United States Postal Services just wasted your money objecting to .mail top level domain – apparently the USPS believes it has some legal right to the term “mail”. 2. New expired domain rules go into effect in August – a new Expired Registration ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
34 intelligent finish user domain buys - 34 companies add to their online presence with aftermarket domain purchases. Afternic had a better-than-usual sales week last week with close to $1.5 million in sales. Here are 34 end user domain sales I found on its list. American Association of Young People was back to buy YoungPeople.org for $2,488. AV India in Delhi bought AVIndia.com for $1,800. Financial Marketing Solutions, which use the dismal domain name FMS4Banks.com, bought “its name” FinancialMarketingSolutions.com ... read more ...
Tue 2nd April 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tracy Morgan wins domain name dispute - Comedian Tracy Morgan can now tell jokes at TracyMorgan.com. A WIPO panel has ordered the domain TracyMorgan.com be transferred to the comedian. (Photo: David Shankbone)Comedian Tracy Morgan laughs about a lot of stuff, but not about how he didn’t own the domain TracyMorgan.com. In January I wrote about how the 30 Rock star had filed a UDRP against the owner of TracyMorgan.com. At the time, the parked page on the domain included links such as “Tracy Morgan Comedian”, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Co to offer Asian IDNs starting Apr 15 - More .co internationalized domain name options available this month. .Co Internet announced that it will begin allowing registrations of Asian language .co IDNs starting April 15. Registrations will be available in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. There will be no trademark sunrise period, so brand owners that wish to register their IDN.co domain should place an order with their registrar quickly. This isn’t .co’s first foray into internationalized domain names. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TechCrunch fights to take down copycat blog - TechCrunch demands NewTechCrunch.com domain; site owner tries to rebrand. TechCrunch’s parent company AOL has filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum to take down the copycat blog NewTechCrunch.com. As of right now, NewTechCrunch.com does not resolve. But until recently the domain resolved to a web site that included articles about laptops, tablets, and phones (see photo from Archive.org, March 11). Likely due to TechCrunch’s actions, the owners of the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions gets a delay obvious on URL forwarding - Patent issued today covers forwarding one domain name to another. Domain forwarding, a.k.a. URL forwarding. Every domain registrar offers it, and most give it away for free to their customers. Type in DNW.com and get forwarded to DomainNameWire.com. Pretty simple, right? Did you know that Network Solutions has a patent for “Apparatus and method for web forwarding”? Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent (pdf) to Network Solutions for a way ... read more ...