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 25th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google loses brawl with oogle.com owner - Google fails to win arbitration case over high traffic typo. A National Arbitration Forum panelist has ruled that the owner of Oogle.com can keep his domain name despite Google’s claims that the registration of the domain name amounts to cybersquatting. Google was upset that the domain name forwarded to porn and scammy survey sites. The first issue of contention between the parties was when the current owner registered the domain name. Google claimed it was 2004; ... read more ...
Tue 24th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
L.A. Company wants to relaunch Kozmo.com smoothness brand - The Kozmo.com brand may be re-birthed a decade later. Remember Kozmo.com, the dot.com bubble service that would deliver a pack of gum to you at no charge? The company raised about $250 million, tried to go public, and then went belly up. It looks like the Kozmo.com brand may be coming back, and it’s happening under some rather unusual circumstances. Yummy Foods, LLC runs Yummy.com, a grocery delivery service in Los Angeles. Last year it was granted two U.S. trademark ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Just how most do new tip turn domains cost, anyway? - Confusing ICANN fee structure for new top level domains. The headline number for new top level domains is $185,000, the price of submitting an application. But domain registries also pay ongoing fees to ICANN each quarter. Amazingly, what exactly those fees are is up for debate. Here’s the full text of section 6.1 on the registry contract new TLD operators will have to enter into: Registry Fixed Fee of US$6,250 per calendar quarter and (ii) the Registry-Level Transaction ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Recruiter Harry Joiner strikes again with dual some-more domain buys - Recruiter finds strong value in descriptive domain names. I’ve written about headhunter Harry Joiner and his domain name purchases many times. That’s because he’s amassed a great portfolio of quality descriptive domain names for his business. He’s back again… Joiner just completed purchases of ContentJobs.com and CIOsearch.com. I also wrote recently about his purchase of eTailJobs.com through Afternic. Joiner has been acquiring top quality job recruiting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UN (still) seeking for IGO exclusions in new tip turn domain program - Wait, you mean the application period has closed? The Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) of the United Nations has sent a letter to ICANN asking for restrictions on applying for Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) names and acronyms as top level domains. Now, I realize things move slowly at the United Nations. But this letter is dated July 11, well after the full list of applied-for names has already been released. The author of the letter is clearly not ... read more ...
Mon 23rd July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How a 5 field for .free intend to use their domains - They’re “free” in one sense only. A couple weeks ago I wrote about the potential for free or very cheap top level domains in the future. I also pointed out that it does look like any of those free domains will be found on .free. As a follow up, here are how the five applicants for .free plan to use the domain if they win the battle: Donuts: as with all of its applications, Donuts’ application for .free has only generic information. Nothing is specific to .free. Amazon.com: ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NYC condo house of directors fails to take down dispute site - Resident set up site to complain about board of directors. From what I’ve heard, the boards of directors of many New York condos and co-ops would make for great reality show fodder. Here’s just one example: The board of directors of Towers on the Park Condominium filed a UDRP against a resident who registered TowersonthePark.com and used it to criticize the board. The resident, Paul Adao, created a web site to complain about various activities of the board of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker and SnapNames beef adult patron support after acquisition - Support and operations staff quadruple. I recently read Elliot’s post about Moniker’s extended phone support hours. I’ve been tracking the support situation at Moniker/SnapNames since KeyDrive bought the companies from Oversee.net, as a number of people have made comments about it. Some customers were also concerned because their account manages left the company. Here are some more details about the support changes at Moniker/SnapNames. DNW: How did the support ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Poll: Are we going to TRAFFIC or ICANN? - Two domain conferences in back-to-back weeks this fall. After a long absence of North America domain name conferences, two are on tap for October: TRAFFIC in Fort Lauderdale October 7-10 and ICANN in Toronto October 14-19. While both shows are sure to attract different crowds, there will surely be domain investors at both. Which do you plan to attend? Answer the poll question and feel free to comment below. [poll id=”17″] ... read more ...
Fri 20th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
“Occupy” is a new “Sucks” - The term “occupy” can be similar to “sucks” in a domain name — an indication of a gripe site. The first element of the uniform domain name dispute resolution policy (UDRP) that a complainant must prove is that the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which the complainant has rights. But what about when it comes to satirical or gripe sites? Generally speaking, the first element of the policy can be overcome by the respondent ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Analyzing .co dual years in and what it tells new TLD applicants - Your TLD is unlikely to be as successful as .co. The rebranded .co domain name is now two years old. .Co put out an infographic today charting its growth and Sedo released an aftermarket analysis. From a business perspective .co has been a huge success. It has a whopping 1.3 million domains registered after two years. It has generated tens of millions in revenue. But I caution new top level domain applicants that are basing their projections on recent new TLD launches ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
End user sales report, Friday edition - 19 end user domain name sales. I’m back in Austin after attending HostingCon (more on that later), so here’s the belated end user domain sales report for this week. In case you missed it, I visited both Afternic’s and Sedo’s offices this week. Afternic Washington Jesuit Academy bought edSolutions.org for $1,000. Actress casting company BubbleGum Casting bought AmateurModeling.com for $2,488 and ModelingGigs.com for $2,000. Global Business Travel Association ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CraigsList sues JamesList, a “Craigslist for a rich” - Confusingly similar yacht sales platforms. If you’ve never heard of JamesList, it may be because you aren’t in the market for a Yacht. Or you wouldn’t think of buying one used. Craigslist has sued (pdf) Jameslist, a classified site for luxury goods such as yachts, jets, and helicopters, for trademark infringement. Craigslist says JamesList’s name is confusingly similar to it, and that JamesList purposely selected its name to sound similar. Craigslist may have ... read more ...
Thu 19th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Global 2013: Yep, it’s still happening - 7th DOMAINfest Global to return in 2013. In my discussions in recent days about the sudden lack of domain conferences, a common question has been, “Is Oversee.net still doing DOMAINfest next year?”. It’s a fair question given that Oversee.net is a much smaller company than it was a year ago having since divested Moniker and SnapNames. Sure, the conference has always technically been sponsored by DomainSponsor (which is now Oversee.net’s bread and butter when ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainTools lawsuit discharged for miss of jurisdiction - Preemptive case against New Jersey man can’t go forward in Washington, judge rules. DomainTools’ preemptive lawsuit against Russ Smith has been dismissed (pdf) with prejudice for lack of personal jurisdiction and improper venue. Russ Smith had threatened to sue DomainTools for copyright infringement and try to get its trademark canceled. Among Smith’s complaints: DomainTools’ archival of snapshots of his web site home pages were copyright violations. Instead ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Brothel beats Victoria’s Secret in titillating domain name dispute - …and it’s seriously a fascinating UDRP case. An Australian brothel has rebuffed an attempt by lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret to take its domain name VictoriasSecrets.com.au. The decision was handed down on a couple weeks ago and a Domain Name Wire reader just brought the case to my attention. The subject matter certainly makes for an interesting story, but the story goes much deeper than that. Let’s get the fun stuff out of the way: the respondent sent ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kohls loses UDRP over 4 minute Kols.com domain name - KOLS.com was registered three years before Kohls.com. Retailer Kohls.com has lost a UDRP dispute for the domain name Kols.com, which it claimed was a typo of its domain name Kohls.com. The respondent, Fox Business Systems / KansasNet, said it registered the domain name as an acronym for “Kansas Online Systems” and had intended to develop it. It hired a number of developers over the years but none of them completed the project. One of those developers parked the ... read more ...
Wed 18th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Missed domain news roundup - Five domain name stories you may have missed this week. Sometimes it’s difficult to be at a conference and blog at the same time. So quite a few stories I wanted to write about this week are still in my “to do” box. Instead, here’s a summary of stories with links to other bloggers who’ve already covered them. Go Daddy released its latest commercial. To my untrained eye it sure looks like it has just as much sex appeal as its previous ones. The only difference ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are there fewer domain conferences or only opposite domain conferences? - There are only two big domainer conferences this year, but domainers still find opportunities to get together. Two years ago you could have gone to a domain name conference every other month. This year there are just two big domain conferences: DOMAINfest (which already took place) and the upcoming TRAFFIC conference in Fort Lauderdale. Here at HostingCon I’ve had conversations with several people about this sudden lack of opportunities to get together. But is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker auction ends tomorrow and Sedo gets AT.com exclusive - Auction has numerous bids but most are under reserve while Sedo lands a whale with AT.com brokerage deal. Moniker’s International Premium ccTLD Auction ends tomorrow, and so far the names getting attention are neither ccTLDs or international domains. The top bid is for MovieGuide.com, although the $71,000 bid is below the $100k-$250k reserve range. Other domains with bids above $10,000 but below reserve are PartyLine.com and Trash.com. So far one domain, Smokers.co.uk, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Zynga acquires Chefville.com domain name - Zynga pockets key domain name for new game. Last month social gaming company Chefville announced its newest games including Chefville. But it didn’t have the Chefville.com domain name — until now. Chefville.com was registered back in January 2006. Its current owner, an individual in California, appears to have owned it that whole time. (The oldest whois record recorded at DomainTools for the domain is in 2007 but shows the same owner.) The registrant parked the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy creates the initial “business” acquisition - Go Daddy acquires Outright. More to come? Go Daddy today announced the acquisition of Outright, a provider of online financial software for small businesses. This is only the company’s third acquisition in its history, and the first one that involves bringing over people from the acquired business. (It’s previous acquisitions were a technology acquisition for a root certificate and taking over the RegisterFly customer database when that registrar lost its accreditation.) Go ... read more ...
Tue 17th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Boston: a core of a domain name aftermarket - Two companies in Boston handle the bulk of the domain name aftermarket. I’m up in Boston for HostingCon, and spent my Monday visiting two of the largest and longest running domain name aftermarkets: NameMedia (Afternic) and Sedo. The two are separated by just a fifteen minute drive, so it’s fair to call Boston the center of the domain name aftermarket. My first stop was NameMedia’s office in Waltham. Signage outside NameMedia’s office in Waltham, MA. NameMedia’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DoorKings.com: this is because we sinecure a domain profession for UDRP - A complainant’s UDRP filing should be pretty simple, if it knows what it’s doing. John Berryhill was ready. His client, United Marketing Group, Inc, had to prove to a WIPO panel that its domain names DoorKings.com and DKSOpeners.com were registered in good faith after DoorKing, Inc. filed a UDRP complaint. So he dutifully explained that, as a reseller meeting certain conditions, United Marketing Group had rights or legitimate interests in the domain names. Then ... read more ...
Mon 16th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
That’s some (un)intellectual property - Attorney starts blog covering overzealous intellectual property enforcers. I write a lot about companies that seem to think they have universal rights to generic terms. Whether it’s a UDRP or a trademark lawsuit, some companies seem to think they control terms such as entrepreneur, elk, and (ironically) “legal advice“. That’s why I think I’m going to like a new blog from Brian Hall, an attorney with Traverse Legal. UnIntellectualProperty.com covers cases ... read more ...