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.

Mon 1st October 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Print media is alive and well - I could quote Mark Twain… Last week I attended the Niche Digital Conference in Chicago for Media.net. The conference is designed primarily for print publishers who are trying to enhance their online revenues, be that from tablets, mobile, or just getting online in the first place. What I found was somewhat surprising. I live in a world where everything is online and printing a publication is deemed a waste of time and money. While that may be true when it comes ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Amazon’s Quidsi lauches Vine.com for healthy products - Quidsi’s latest generic domain store: Vine.com. I’ve scooped a number of Quidsi store openings based on generic domains they’ve bought — from Afterschool.com to Casa.com. But I missed this one: Quidsi just launched Vine.com, a store with “natural products for green living”. George Kirikos points out that the company appears to have acquired the domain name through Mark Monitor over the past few weeks. It was previously owned by a company called Vine Technology. It’s ... read more ...
Thu 27th September 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kate Spade files complaints over .co and .xxx domains - Company upset over Kate Spade domain names. Fashion brand Kate Spade, LLC has filed UDRP complaints at World Intellectual Property Organization against the owners of two domain names: KateSpade.co and KateSpade.xxx. KateSpade.co resolves to a page announcing that the domain name is for sale; the .xxx domain goes to a domain name registrar “coming soon” page. Kate Spade has filed UDRP complaints before — but these are the first two since 2008. That makes me think ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
EU organisation calls due Whois changes “unlawful” - EU data protection group says law enforcement’s wish list would be unlawful in European Union. In May I wrote about some of the requests law enforcement agencies were making for the new ICANN registrar accreditation agreement. Some of the requests included verifying phone numbers, annual whois updates, and retaining IP addresses. Now the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has chimed in, stating that these requirements are likely unlawful in the European Union. In ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo boosts domain auctions with “Last Call” - New auction option will increase activity in Sedo’s auctions. Sedo announced a new auction option this morning called “Last Chance Auctions”. The more I learn about it, the more I like the idea. Last Chance Auctions allow Sedo users to start a domain auction at a reserve of 99 USD/GBP/EUR. This is a good way for customers to get added exposure for domains they perhaps want to cull out of their portfolio. Currently, you must be a SedoPro customer to list domains ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
People like porn: search.xxx gets 500k searches in a day - New search engine for sites on .xxx domains get lots of traffic within first 24 hours. Yesterday at about this time ICM Registry switched on its new .xxx search engine, search.xxx. Now, about 24 hours later, the company says it has already served 500,000 searches to 100,000 unique visitors. The site was certainly helped by lots of media coverage, but this is an impressive number any way you look at it. Search.xxx has indexed more than 21 million pages of content ... read more ...
 
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Wall Street Journal names new TLD association Donuts to Top 50 Startups - WSJ ranks Donuts #14 on list of top startups. The Wall Street Journal just released its rankings of the top 50 venture-capital-backed companies, and new top level domain name company Donuts made the cut. It actually did better than just make the cut, landing at #14 on the list. It’s also the youngest company on the list. The company has just eight employees but has raised $100 million. It’s the biggest top level domain applicant by far, throwing its hat (and money) ... read more ...
Wed 26th September 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameMedia launches NameFind.com to assistance businesses find a name - NameFind makes finding a company or product identity much easier. NameMedia, the company behind Afternic and BuyDomains, today launched a new name finding service called NameFind. There are a bunch of sites out there that help entrepreneurs find available domain names based on topics or keywords. NameFind goes several steps further and has a key component that makes if valuable to domain name investors. In addition to finding unregistered and for sale domain names, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ESQwire.com wins UDRP for customer with minority anticipating of RDNH - A RNDH opinion worth reading. Ari Goldberger’s ESQwire has helped its client PortMedia defend the domain name Altom.com in a UDRP. One of the panelists determined that the case was reverse domain name hijacking, and his point of view is worth reading. The domain name was registered in 2002. Although it was protected by whois privacy for much of the time, I have good reason to believe that the current registrant is the one that registered the domain name back in ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo expands placement partnership with Go Daddy - “Make Offer” domains now distributed to Go Daddy through SedoMLS. Sedo announced today that it has expanded its distribution partnership with Go Daddy to include “make offer” domain names. In January Go Daddy joined the SedoMLS network. That meant that fixed priced domains at Sedo that were opted into SedoMLS would show up in the registration path at GoDaddy.com. Go Daddy customers could purchase the domains by following a link to Go Daddy Auctions. The expanded ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
21 finish user domain sales (including some large buyers) - 21 end user domain name sales from the past week. This week’s end user domain sales report includes a shop that’s probably at your local mall, a big online university, and cosmetics giant Loreal. Afternic Thomson Reuters bought SJNK.com for $4,200. I’m not sure what it stands for. Used Gym Equipment, LLC paid $1,988 for UsedGymEquipment.org to accompany its dot.com. Harris Research, Inc., owner of the ChemDry franchise, bought ChemDry.net for $1,277. Personal ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
National Golf Foundation loses domain brawl for NGF.com - Group tries to upgrade its domain name to .com. A three person National Arbitration Forum panel has ruled against National Golf Foundation, Inc. in its bid to snag the NGF.com domain name. The foundation, a non-profit that conducts research about golf, uses the domain name NGF.org. The panel ruled that domain registrant Mediablue was making a bona fide offering of goods or services with the domain name. Although it’s merely parked, it was registered due to the generic/multiple ... read more ...
Tue 25th September 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo GreatDomains auction ends Thursday. Here’s a look. - 17 domains have already met their reserves with a couple days to go. Sedo’s monthly GreatDomains auction ends Thursday. So far 17 of the 217 domain names have met their reserves. The highest domain name to have met its reserve is PTZ.com at $5,000. Another three letter .com attracting attention is OAL.com at $14,000, although its reserve of up to $25,000 hasn’t been met. Leah.com leads the list with a $26,000 bid but that’s below the reserve as well. The auction ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rare bird .jobs domain speckled in a wild - A fashion brand actually uses the rare .jobs domain name. I went to the mall with my daughter this past weekend when something suddenly stopped me in my tracks. I pulled out my smartphone and snapped a picture. My six-year-old daughter looked at me with a confused expression and asked, “What, dad? What is it?” “Something rarer than a unicorn,” I told her. Indeed, this is what I saw: Yes, that’s a .jobs domain. It’s the first time I think I’ve seen one ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
USPS on Donuts: You’re undercapitalized - USPS fears Donuts won’t deliver on .delivery. Well, this is amusing. The United State Postal Service has just filed a comment on Donuts’ application for the .delivery top level domain name. What’s the USPS concerned about? That Donuts is undercapitalized to run its domain names. Here’s what @thereforeicann has to say about that: The comments were submitted by USPS lawyers Lewis and Roca LLP for the Financial Capability Evaluation Panel. Subject line: “Insufficient ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy patents “announcing a domain name registration on a amicable website” - Patent describes way to announce your latest domain name registration. Last year I wrote about Go Daddy’s patent applications related to announcing a domain name registration on a social network. Today the United States Patent and Trademark office granted the domain name registrar a patent for “announcing a domain name registration on a social website”. U.S. patent number 8,276,057 (pdf) describes a way in which a domain name registrar account could be connected ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rockies.com domain name goes adult for sale - Whether it’s for the baseball team for tourism, Rockies.com is now available for purchsae. Major League Baseball may yet be able to get its hands on the Rockies.com domain name. Domain Name Wire has confirmed that the owner of the site is trying to sell it. The sales process is being managed by an outfit called Venture Capital Group Ltd, which tells Domain Name Wire that the domain name will officially be put up for sale later this week. Venture Capital Group’s ... read more ...
Mon 24th September 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
790 .com permit plates in Virginia - Virginia residents can promote their internet coolness on special .com license plates. You might be saying “no, not another license plate story!”, but this was too cool to not pass on. A Domain Name Wire reader commented on my last post about .com license plates and noted that Virginia offers a .com specific license plate. The plate is called “Internet Capital” and has .com printed on the right side of each plate. The .com isn’t part of the actual license ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Atlantic buys QZ.com for new publication - Company forks out cash for two letter domain — which is a truncation of a six letter word. The Atlantic today launched Quartz, a publication targeted to upscale readers. What does this have to do with domain names, other than the decidedly upscale audience that reads Domain Name Wire? The company bought QZ.com for the site. Atlantic Media Incorporated bought the domain name around April this year according to historical whois records. It sold for $76,000 at a Moniker/TRAFFIC ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CrossFit Blows (and CrossFit isn’t happy about that) - Florida training center upsets CrossFit. CrossFit may be good at kicking peoples’ butts into shape at the gym, but now it’s doing burpees in front of an arbitration panel. A UDRP case was just filed at National Arbitration Froum for the domain name CrossfitBlows.com. What’s interesting is that the domain name is owned by an apparent rival to the CrossFit program called Monsters Training Center in Florida. If you go to CrossFitBlows.com you’ll see an unfriendly ... read more ...
Fri 21st September 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TRAFFIC heads to Fort Lauderdale - Domain name conference just two weeks away. The Targeted TRAFFIC conference kicks off at the Ritz Carlton in Fort Lauderdale October 7. Before the show even begins there are plenty of activities for early arrivers. On Saturday October 5 you can go deep sea fishing, scuba diving, golfing…you get the idea. You can see a full list of Saturday’s activities here. The cabanas are open on Sunday from 10-5 as well. The show officially kicks off Sunday evening with the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CA Technologies sells Platinum.com domain name for $250,000 - Domain name appears to have been sold to pet food company. It looks like CA (aka Computer Associates) has sold one of its prime domain names, Platinum.com. Moniker has confirmed that it brokered the transaction and the sales price was $250,000. The domain name was featured in Moniker’s DOMAINfest and Spring Auctions with a reserve range of $500,000 to $1,000,000. The whois record for the domain name just changed to show that the domain now belongs to the German ... read more ...
Thu 20th September 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Class movement lawsuit filed over Go Daddy downtime - Lawsuit claims seeks damages for downtime on September 10. Well, that was quick. The first federal lawsuit seeking class action status has been filed against GoDaddy for its downtime on September 10 (pdf). The outage affected GoDaddy.com and many people who used the company’s DNS and web hosting services. The suit was filed by Eric Mitchell, who runs the web site StatedIncomeIsBack.com. He claims Go Daddy failed to “satisfy its guaranteed upload (sic) times for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ashley Furniture files cybersquatting lawsuit opposite owners of 123 domain names - Company says defendant used to work at ad agency that catered to home furnishings companies. Ashley Furniture is a pretty aggressive UDRP filer. It usually goes after clear cut cases of cybersquatting, save for one egregious case for Ashley.com filed in 2008. Now the company is turning to the courts in a dispute against a Maryland man. The company just filed suit (pdf) against Jon Parks, who the company alleges violated the Anti-Cybersquatting Protection Act by registering ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo changes domain inventory routine and adds “Big Data Pricer” - New process includes “Big Data Pricer”. Sedo has updated the process of listing domain names for sale with the service. There’s a pretty slick wizard that walks you through the process. The new process includes the company’s “Big Data Pricer”, which provides price suggestions for your domain names based on the same methodology used for theIDNX. You can choose to accept the price as a listing price if you want. The suggested prices calculate fairly quickly. The ... read more ...