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 16th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dyson sells bladeless fans, though doesn’t possess a term - UDRP is was not creative for taking down site selling knock-offs. You may be familiar with Dyson, the company that makes mundane things (like vacuum cleaners) cool. One of its latest creations it the bladeless fan, which cools you off without the need for a spinning blade (and for about 10x the cost of an equivalent traditional fan). Enter bladelessfanonline.com, a site that Dyson claims is selling knock-off Dyson fans. The company filed a UDRP against it. It may ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Internet hits 233 million domain names - Second level domain space continues to grow. Verisign released and announced its latest quarterly domain name report at an odd time this quarter — 4 pm on a Friday. That’s usually the time you release bad news you don’t want people to hear about, so it’s kind of odd for a marketing piece. So here’s my Monday morning coverage of highlights: – Q1 closed with 233 second level domain registrations, and increase of 7.5 million over the previous quarter. – ... read more ...
Sat 14th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Not even .com – a F’n .me??? -

What a F@ck is News.me? Not Even .com. – A f@ck!ng .me???

Some domain name amusement per a merger of Digg by a .me web site.

Via: domainnamewire.com

 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Two good domain name articles to review this weekend - Two articles for your weekend. I read two great articles on domain sites this week that I wanted to bring to your attention. First is a post by Owen Frager. Now, I’ll be the first to admit I don’t usually click through to Owen’s stuff because I find the story has little to do with the headline. But when I saw that Escrow.com retweeted an article he wrote about the company, I took a look. Frager has written a fascinating story about Escrow.com and its president ... read more ...
Fri 13th July 2012
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Chicago drops office for email, Power.com launches with @Identity service - Chicago.com no longer a directory; owner also powering new email service at Power.com. This morning I read an article by Robin Wauters lampooning Power.com, which offers an @Power.com email address and subdomains for a very steep price. The site immediately reminded me of Chicago.com and its personalized @chicago.com email addresses. Indeed, Power.com is “powered” by @Identity, a company formed by Chicago.com owner Josh Metnick and Thought Convergence’s Ammar ... read more ...
 
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Default settlement released opposite Paris in domain fight, indemnification conference on tap - Paris may face damages in reverse domain name hijacking case. A Texas district court has filed an entry of default against Ville de Paris in a domain name squabble. The case involves Parvi.org. The city of Paris won a UDRP case for the domain name in 2009. When Paris filed the complaint it agreed to jurisdiction in Texas for matters stemming from the dispute. Domain owner Jeffrey Walter took advantage of the jurisdiction, filing a lawsuit against Paris in U.S. District ... read more ...
Thu 12th July 2012
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Apple starts forwarding iPad3.com to the web site — and it’s tracking it, too - Apple smartly measures traffic to recently recovered domain name. Late last month Apple filed a cybersquatting complaint over the domain name iPad3.com. Shortly after filing the complaint the owner of the domain acquiesced, giving the domain to Apple’s lawyers Kilpatrick Townsend Stockton. For a while after the transfer to Apple’s lawyers the domain didn’t resolve at all. Now it forwards to the iPad page on Apple. Here’s the full URL I’m forwarded to when ... read more ...
 
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Owners of FirstDibs.com and 1stDibs.com duke it out in court - 1stDibs.com says owner of FirstDibs.com is cybersquatting. The registrants of FirstDibs.com and 1stDibs.com are embroiled in a court battle, with the latter saying that FirstDibs.com infringes its trademarks. The owner of FirstDibs.com is seafood wholesaler Seafood Supply Company of Dallas, Texas. 1stDibs.com is an online retailer offering upscale home decor, jewelry, and real estate. In a lawsuit (pdf) filed in New York late last month, 1stDibs.com said it first ... read more ...
 
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Intel gets dual strikes in Mexico - Company loses two UDRPs for Spanish language domain names. Big brands occasionally lose cybersquatting disputes. But two in a row with similar circumstances? That’s what happened to Intel south of the border. The company just got back-to-back losses on two Spanish language domain names including the word “Intel”. Both of the domains are registered to different people in Sonora, Mexico. The first case involved intelcompras.com. IntelCompras.com is an active business ... read more ...
Wed 11th July 2012
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Would giveaway domains invert a sell domain market? - There will be plenty of free and low cost domain registration options, but don’t expect them to have a big impact on the domain registration market. I’ve had a number of conversations with people over the past month about the idea of free (as in no cost) domain names. Will some new top level domain applicants give their domains away for free? Will this upend the market for domain registrations? In short, I think the answers are “yes” to the former and “no” ... read more ...
 
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Google’s Legalize Love debate has a domain name issue - Logical domain names for campaign forward to a decidedly edgy web site. Google has made quite a splash with its “Legalize Love” campaign announced during the Global LGBT Workplace Summit over the weekend. The first thing I did when I heard news of its new campaign was to go to LegalizeLove.com to find more information. And that’s where the problem begins. Google doesn’t own the domain names LegalizeLove.com and LegaliseLove.com. A Google spokesperson confirmed ... read more ...
 
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50 finish user domain sales over a past dual weeks - From sports to health, fifty end user domain sales from the past two weeks. With the U.S. holiday last week I postponed the end user sales report. That means two weeks of data this week — and about 50 sales to report. Here goes… Afternic The Sportsman’s Guide, Inc. picked the UK version of its name, SportsmansGuide.co.uk, for $2,000. A Beautiful California Florist bought ABCFlorist.com (get it, ABC?) for $1,500. Sand Source Services shortened its web address ... read more ...
Tue 10th July 2012
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Plans for Frank Schilling’s Uniregistry go approach back - Uniregistry.com registered back in 2006, original trademark application in 2010. Last month Uniregistry Corp., Frank Schilling’s new top level domain venture, filed trademark applications for the mark “Uniregistry” as well as its stylized “U” logo. But this isn’t the first time the company has applied for a trademark. Back in 2010 the corporation filed an intent to use application on “Uniregistry” using its Cayman address. So Schilling has been working ... read more ...
 
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What Afternic’s stretched understanding with Go Daddy means for domainers - More eyeballs and more sales. This morning Afternic announced an expanded deal with Go Daddy to distribute its non-fixed price domain sales listings through the registrar. Here’s what this means for you… The Afternic deal will help you get more of your domain names on to the most valuable end user shelf space in the world: Go Daddy’s registration path. “Registration path” basically refers to the search results page when you search for a domain at GoDaddy.com. Before ... read more ...
 
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Name.com piggybacks NameCheap.com $.98 Twitter domain offer - Name.com vs. NameCheap. It’s on! Here’s an interesting duel going on between two domain registrars that have mastered social media: Name.com and NameCheap.com. NameCheap.com is asking people to retweet a message about 98 cent domain registrations. If 30,000 retweet it by July 16, then NameCheap will provide a special 24 hour sale where you can get a .com, .net, or .org domain name for $.98. Since you have to follow NameCheap in order to get the special sale price, ... read more ...
Mon 9th July 2012
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My initial Amazon.com squeeze with sales tax - Amazon.com starts charging sales tax in Texas. That won’t hope local retailers much. Last week I made a purchase on Amazon.com that had a new line item: sales tax. A week ago Sunday Amazon.com started collecting sales tax in Texas. Local retailers are rejoicing. To be fair to the retailers, it’s only right that Amazon collect sales tax on purchases made by Texas residents. But if they’re hoping that this will suddenly send shoppers back to their shops, they’ll ... read more ...
 
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At slightest 23 domain companies streamer to HostingCon subsequent week - Web hosting industry (and lots of domain name companies) head to Boston. In many ways the domain industry and web hosting industry are one. The world’s largest domain name registrar is also the world’s largest shared web hosting provider, and that’s not by coincidence. Next week the web hosting industry has its big annual conference, HostingCon 2012, in Boston. I’ve spotted 23 domain name related companies that will attending. I’m kind of surprised that ... read more ...
 
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Verisign “Domain Exchange” obvious focus says use would be useful for typosquatters - Application filed shortly after pulling ICANN request admits a domain exchange service could be a boon for typosquatters. In April 2010 Verisign asked ICANN to allow it to introduce a “Domain Name Exchange” service. The service would have allowed registrars to exchange one domain name for another. The use case VeriSign proffered was that a web host that offers short term packages could swap out a domain if a customer canceled their account. The new service request ... read more ...
 
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GoDaddy.com adds dual cause authentication - New security option available to customers with a U.S. mobile phone number. GoDaddy.com has added two factor authentication capabilities for U.S. customers. The feature appears to have been added within the past couple days. The added security layer, also known as two step authentication, means that someone who gets control of your username and password will be unable to log in to your account. In addition to the usual login credentials, Go Daddy will send a one time ... read more ...
 
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Lance Armstrong’s quarrel opposite USADA reminds me a lot of a arguments opposite UDRP - Not enough time to respond to “kangaroo court”. Lance Armstrong is fighting hard to not have to defend himself against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which he calls a “Kangaroo court”. Armstrong wants nothing to do with the USADA process, so he’s trying to short circuit it by going to the courts. A lot of domain name owners have had it with UDRP, so they do the same thing. His arguments sound a lot like the arguments made against the uniform domain ... read more ...
Fri 6th July 2012
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Go Daddy Auctions Jun sales down (but that doesn’t meant a downturn in a market) - Aftermarket domain sales robust despite lower numbers on Go Daddy Auctions. Last month Go Daddy Auctions sold 31,896 domain names. That’s down from 35,094 in May. The number of domains sold on the platform has been on a downward trend for several months. I reached out to Paul Nicks, Director – Domain Name Aftermarket at Go Daddy, to find out what’s behind the decline: Seasonality is a factor during summer months. We’ve also seen a direct correlation with an ... read more ...
 
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Rawlings sues Wilson over Brandon Phillips Gold Glove - There’s gold in them there gloves. Just in time for the Major League Baseball All Start Game comes this lawsuit between two baseball equipment manufacturers. Rawlings Sporting Goods, which has given the “Gold Glove” award since 1957, is a bit peeved that one of its rivals has produced a glove with gold on it. The lawsuit (pdf) claims that Wilson Sporting Goods has produced an infringing baseball glove that is being used by Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon ... read more ...
 
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NCC skeleton to deposit $9.4 million in .secure (if it can get a domain) - Company hopeful it can prevail over Amazon.com. The CEO of United Kingdom security company NCC Group (NCC.LN) told Dow Jones Newswires that it plans to invest 6 million pounds ($9.4 million) in the top level domain name .secure, with over half of that in the next twelve months. CEO Rob Cotton also told Dow Jones Newswires that he thinks his company will prevail in getting the domain name despite it being contested by Amazon.com. Like all of Amazon.com’s domains, ... read more ...
 
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SMA.com spared in UDRP case - Panel rules domain not registered in bad faith. In May I wrote about how the owner of SMA.de — SMA Solar Technology AG — had filed a UDRP to get the domain name SMA.com. A three person World Intellectual Property Organization panel just handed down the verdict: the owner of SMA.com can keep the domain name. The current owner registered the domain name in 1995. SMA Solar Technology became interested in the domain and tried contacting the owner in 2005. It was rebuffed. ... read more ...
Thu 5th July 2012
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Wow: check out this panelist’s sardonic anticipating of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Panelist goes the extra mile in explanation of reverse domain name hijacking. UDRP panelists are usually reluctant to affirm that a complainant attempted reverse domain name hijacking. But in some cases the facts are so damning that the panelist goes the extra mile to explain why the case is so egregious. This usually happens when the panelist believes he or she was lied to. That’s the case with Houston Putnam Lowry’s decision for MamaMayI.com. The case was brought ... read more ...