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 1st November 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
So like we was saying…Marchex splits in two, forms Archeo - Finally, Marchex is getting serious about its vast domain name portfolio. On Tuesday I wrote about how Marchex had filed a trademark application for Archeo, and wondered if it was a rebranding. It is…sort of. Marchex announced today that it is splitting in two: 1. Marchex will be focused purely on mobile and call advertising. 2. Archeo will hold the company’s domain portfolio of 200,000+ domains and handle pay-per-click advertising. With the split, the company ... read more ...
 
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Marchex’ tip 500 domain sales of all time - Marchex releases a sales data treasure trove. With Marchex’ announcement today that it is spinning off its domain business into Archeo, the company released a treasure trove of data about its domain operations. The biggie: a list of its top 500 domain sales of all time. Many of this (most?) have never been reported. Which means Ron Jackson might be very busy, should he decide to go back and figure out when these domains were sold so he can add them to the charts. Here’s ... read more ...
Wed 31st October 2012
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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 ...
 
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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
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 ...
 
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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 ...
Tue 30th October 2012
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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 ...
 
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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 ...
 
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“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 ...
Mon 29th October 2012
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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 ...
 
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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 ...
Fri 26th October 2012
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Man claims he and friends were hoodwinked for $123,000 in new tip turn domain scheme - Man says he and friends invested $123,000 for new top level domain project that never got off the ground. [Update: the lawsuit has been dropped.] A Florida man has filed a lawsuit alleging he was duped by a new top level domain name scheme. David Ways planned to apply for the .bim top level domain name. According to the lawsuit, Ways says he contacted VeriSign about his plans and they referred him to Iain Roache as a potential funding source. Roache is listed as the ... read more ...
 
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For VeriSign, it’s 2009 all over again - Growth in .Com/.net base slows down thanks in part to search engine changes. Immediately after Verisign released its earnings yesterday that showed slowing growth, fellow blogger Michael Berkens sent me this tweet: Michael was referring to my earlier article that stated the numbers he used in his own post saying .com/.net growth had slowed to a crawl weren’t a fair comparison, and that historically .com growth rates have been on a steady but measured decline. While ... read more ...
 
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Commerce to Verisign: are we creation too most money? - U.S. government reviewing .com agreement price hikes. Verisign has a wonderful business model. Running the .com registry has huge efficiencies of scale. As the .com base gets bigger, it throws off more cash. For years the company and its investors have been able to count on two great upward trajectories: a growing base of .com domains and 7% price hikes in most years. Although the growth rate of .com is slowing, it isn’t slower growth that has sent the stock down ... read more ...
Thu 25th October 2012
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Locksmiths “pick” quarrel with Frank Schilling - …and they lose. IDN, Inc., the company that runs Locksmith Dealers of America (LSDA), picked a fight with the wrong guy. (Sorry, I couldn’t help it.) The company filed a UDRP against Frank Schilling’s Name Administration over the domain name LSDA.com. Apparently IDN, Inc. decided that 2012 was a good year to create a web site after many years in business. Hey, better late than never. But it wanted the short and simple domain LSDA.com. It offered up to $5,000 ... read more ...
 
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Go Daddy files obvious applications for geo domain idea tools - Patent applications are related to geo domain search tool released in 2009. In 2009 Go Daddy released a geo domain research tool to help domainers find local domains, such as cityHotels.com. The tool is online at geo.godaddy.com/. The company subsequently filed three patent applications covering various ways to generate geographic-specific related domain names. These three applications were filed in 2011 but just published today. The applications are: SUGGESTING DOMAIN ... read more ...
 
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Will Lance Armstrong fallout harm Demand Media? - One of the risks disclosed in Demand Media’s S-1 has come true. When Demand Media filed to go public in 2010 it disclosed a laundry list of risk factors for the company. One of those risks was the reputation hit the company could take if any of the celebrities associated with its brands ran into trouble. On page 20, the company disclosed: “Poor perception of our brand, business or industry could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business, financial ... read more ...
 
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Verisign shares dump 14% after hours on pricing concerns, slower growth - Shares off sharply as .com price hikes in doubt. VeriSign shares are down 14% in after hours trading to about $40.00 at the time of writing. This is likely do mostly to concerns over VeriSign being able to hike prices 7% per year in its .com contract renewal. In its earnings release this afternoon, the company stated: As a result of communications beginning in October 2012 with the Commerce Department, we have concluded that the Commerce Department may not complete ... read more ...
Wed 24th October 2012
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Domain sale roundup: Bankruptcy auction, .xxx, GreatDomains, and SnapNames - Some interesting domain offerings and auctions are on tap over the next 30 days. I’ve received a number of recent announcements regarding domains sales and auctions, and some of them are rather interesting. First, there’s a bankruptcy auction for two portfolios of domain names. One is of 3,000 premium domain names and the other a portfolio of 150,000 domains. There is significant traffic in this portfolio. The auction is result of a long and intriguing battle. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
40 finish user domain sales - 40 end user domain sales from the past week. It was a busy week for end user domain sales: A university bought the name for its new mascot, a rehab center spent $30k on a category defining domain name, and a company bought a three letter .com as an acronym that likely cost less than it would have paid to get its longer name. Afternic Recruitment company Bernard Hodes Group bought BaptistHealthJobs.net for $1,477. It doesn’t own the .com version. International Pharmaceutical ... read more ...
 
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Cognac.com sells for $140,000 - Cognac.com changes hands again in $140,000 sale. Dallas company Weblabcenter has sold Cognac.com for $140,000, Domain Name Wire has learned. Weblabcenter bought the domain name in a Sedo GreatDomains auction in 2008 for $88,000. That’s nearly a 60% return in about four years. Nhatvi Nguyen of Weblabcenter told me that the company started a blog on the domain name after buying it, but it never amounted to much. The buyer of the domain name is anonymous for now. The ... read more ...
Tue 23rd October 2012
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InteriorDesign.com strike with UDRP - Valuable generic hit with UDRP. Another day, another amazing UDRP filing. This time it’s for InteriorDesign.com, which is owned by P. A. Gordon in Guam. Gordon owns some spectacular domain names, including Laptops.com, Getaway.com, Profit.com, Italy.com, Denmark.com, Netherlands.com, and Venezuela.com. It appears Gordon is the original registrant of the domain from 1997; at a minimum historical whois records show the registrant hasn’t changed since at least 2000. I ... read more ...
 
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Lawsuit claims Go Daddy illegally available phone calls - Two California men claim domain registrar recorded calls without permission. You know the line… “This call may be recorded for quality or training purposes”. Well, according to two California men, their phone calls with domain name registrar Go Daddy were secretly recorded in violation of California law. The lawsuit they just filed (pdf) seeks class action status and $5,000 per recorded phone call for all California residents who had a phone call with the company ... read more ...
Mon 22nd October 2012
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Nordstrom sues peep sales site NoMoreRack - Retailer claims flash sales site is infringing its marks. Retailing giant Nordstrom has sued flash sales site NoMoreRack.com, claiming the site’s brand and domain name infringe its trademarks (pdf). Nordstrom owns 110 “The Rack” stores, which are essentially its outlet stores. It has trademarks for “Rack” and “The Rack”. NoMoreRack.com is a flash sales site, offering limited time closeout sales. According to this article, it generated $46 million in ... read more ...
 
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SnapNames releases Android app for bidding - App lets you update bids on the go. Less than two months after it released an iPhone app, domain name marketplace SnapNames has released a comparable Android app. The app lets you: – Bid on your domain names in auction from your Android device – View your bidding activity, number of bidders, time remaining high bidder status – View your recent auction activity As with the iPhone app, it does not let you directly add new domains/bids to your account. You may ... read more ...