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 25th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Art and .Church heading a competition for open comments on tip turn domain applications - Public comments on new TLD applications range from boring to misinformed. Anyone with an email address (and I do mean anyone) can comment on any one of the nearly 2,000 top level domain applications. As of right now there are 161 submitted comments, mostly covering just a handful of proposed top level domains. Many of the comments are predictable. As we saw with .xxx, religious folk do a good job with email blast campaigns. So there’s plenty of “support” for ... read more ...
Sun 24th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company sues over stolen domains after losing UDRP - Austin Rare Coins asks court to hand over allegedly stolen domain names. An Austin company has filed an in rem cybersquatting lawsuit in an effort to get control over eight domain names it says were stolen from its possession. Austin Rare Coins, Inc. first turned to National Arbitration Forum with a UDRP filing to try to get the domain names back. The panel awarded it one domain but not the others, saying it didn’t prove any trademark rights to most of the domain ... read more ...
Sat 23rd June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Did a digital archery association put a final spike in a coffin of cursed scheme? - Company claims it reported issue to ICANN earlier this week. So ICANN has “suspended” digital archery, a way to divide up new top level domain applicants into batches. This was the right move, albeit a couple weeks late. Now 20% of applications have shot an arrow, and many more applicants have invested significant resources into the process. True to form, ICANN pushed forward with its plan despite multiple warning signs that it should take another look at it. Now, ... read more ...
Fri 22nd June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé doesn’t have his possess name as domain name - FadiChehade.com registered today, but not by new ICANN CEO. ICANN announced this morning that software executive Fadi Chehadé would be its new CEO come October. Naturally, the first thing I did was look up his presence on the web. Here’s his LinkedIn profile. Here’s his domain name, FadiChehade.com. Did you click on his domain name? If so, you noticed he doesn’t own it. It was registered this morning by Theo Geurts. And Geurts says he got the idea from me ... read more ...
Thu 21st June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sorry, though this turn of new TLDs isn’t revolutionary - Rules of engagement make this round of new TLDs less than satisfactory. Last week ICANN released the names of the 1,400 some odd top level domains that might be headed to the web in the next year or two. Despite every cliche ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom made about how the web will be changed forever, this is the biggest thing in the history of the internet, etc., I’m afraid to say it’s just not the case. This isn’t to say that applicants didn’t come up with interesting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Codecademy beats Code Academy in domain dispute - They may know how to code, but they could work on domain name strategy. Here’s an interesting domain name dispute involving hot startup Codecademy. Codecademy, true to its name, helps people learn how to program. The company made quite a splash earlier this year when it got hundreds of thousands of people to “pledge” to learn how to code this year. Among the pledges was New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Although most of the New Years’ resolutions have ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hi, China! Afternic inks understanding with China’s largest domain registrar - Afternic offers domain names through HiChina. Afternic announced a deal today with HiChina, China’s largest domain name registrar. HiChina is the company’s fourth partner in China for AfternicDLS. This means that customers searching for domain names at HiChina will also be able to purchase domain names from the Afternic platform. Sales occur in real time with instant transfer of the domain name to the buyer. Afternic has seen quite a bit of expansion in European ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign operative to repair Hebrew IDN error - Company wants to fix error in one of its new top level domain applications. Verisign has responded to Domain Name Wire’s inquiry regarding an error in its application for a Hebrew internationalized domain name (IDN) for a transliteration of .com: Verisign is aware of the administrative error that resulted in the inclusion of a variant character in the Verisign Sàrl application for the Hebrew transliteration of .com and is working with ICANN to address the error. ICANN ... read more ...
Wed 20th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Early .Green devotee fights 3 other field for domain name - The green domain space gets crowded. Competition to run the top level domain .green is heating up (and heating up is not a word revered by the green community). Four companies have submitted applications to ICANN to run the domain name: DotGreen Community, Inc., Demand Media, Top Level Domain Holdings, and Afilias. DotGreen Community was the first company to announce a bid for the domain. It was founded in 2007 and started touting its plans for a .green domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SnapNames throws shawl into domain morning and landrush auction ring - KeyDrive companies want to play a role in new TLD rollout. SnapNames and Moniker have announced they will support sunrise and landrush auctions for new top level domain registries. The company will, of course, also offer premium generic sales and auctions for registry withheld domain names. I’ve been told by a newish TLD registry (I think I just coined a term) in the past that Pool.com is really the only service that meets the unique needs of a sunrise auction. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Microsoft gets dotBing.com, though what about other dot domains? - Company gets control of dotBing.com domain name, but doesn’t have dot domains related to most other TLD bids. This week Microsoft took control of dotBing.com, a domain that was registered back in 2009. Its interest in the domain is clearly related to the company’s bid for a .bing top level domain name. The company applied for 11 top level domains in total. But it doesn’t own the corresponding .com in most of them. And obtaining them won’t be easy; many of ... read more ...
Tue 19th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MediaSet.com preference reversed, owners can keep domain - MediaSet.com can remain with domain registrant. In April I wrote about how a court had apparently ruled that Italy’s largest broadcaster, MediaSet, had rights to the domain name MediaSet.com. MediaSet is controlled by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. MediaSet had lost a UDRP for the domain name back in February. That case was defended by ESQwire.com. But then MediaSet got a court in Rome to order the domain transferred to MediaSet. The latest decision ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Another digital archery use launches. Here’s how we should compensate for one of these services. - Digital archery services are a no lose proposition — for the service provider. I just got a press release from an outfit called Digital Archery Hotshots, the latest company to offer digital archery solutions for ICANN’s batching process. I don’t recall how many digital archery pitches I’ve received now, but I think I might no longer be able to count them on one hand. Most of these companies have a pay-for-results system, where you pay a higher fee if you ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Amazon.com’s Quidsi acquires Afterschool.com - A new Quidsi store in the works? Amazon.com’s Quidsi, the company behind stores with great domains such as Diapers.com, Soap.com (cleaning and personal care), YoYo.com (toy), and Wag.com (pet stuff), has purchased the domain name Afterschool.com. The domain name was acquired from WebQuest Inc. with the help of brand protection company Mark Monitor. The domain transferred to Mark Monitor on June 10, and the whois was updated to show Quidsi yesterday. Quidsi’s domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN might let new TLD field cgange their applications - Plan may allow new TLD applicants to fix errors. ICANN is considering allowing applicants for new top level domains to make changes to their applications, the organization confirmed to Domain Name Wire today. The group is working on a process that could allow applicants to fix errors in their final applications. Officially: ICANN has received requests for changes to submitted applications. We take these requests very seriously and are working on developing guidelines ... read more ...
Mon 18th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Paul Keating somehow wins Taget.com UDRP - Shoddy work by Target’s lawyers may have let domain owner off the hook. Domain attorney Paul Keating has successfully defended Quinv S.A. against Target Brands and a UDRP it filed over Taget.com. Now, first things first: Taget.com isn’t necessarily a typo of Target.com. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to own this domain and ways you can use it without running afoul of cybersquatting rules. But Target claimed the domain forwarded through a series of URLs ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain equine trade eventuality in Prague subsequent week - You can have .app if I can have .cloud. I talked to Top Level Domain Holdings (TLDH) Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush about 15 minutes after ICANN’s “big reveal” news conference ended last week. He told me he had already received an email from another applicant for a TLD that TLDH had applied for, saying basically “let’s talk”. And that’s a lot of the talking that will be going on at next week’s ICANN meeting in Prague. Competitors who applied for identical ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A few tips to ICANN’s new CEO - Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Congratulations! On Friday, ICANN will announce you as its new Chief Executive Officer. This is a pretty good gig. You’ll earn about a million bucks a year, which isn’t bad for a non-profit CEO. (That’s what the outgoing CEO earned. I assume you negotiated well.) But you have your work cut out for you. The past, I don’t know, entirety of ICANN hasn’t exactly been rosy for the CEO. Now, before Friday comes around ... read more ...
Sat 16th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Microsoft’s Generation App: F’ it, it blows (so contend domain names) - Microsoft registers dirty names related to its new Generation App. Microsoft is releasing its Generation App (Or Gen App), which is a suite of tools to help you build an app for Microsoft platforms within 30 days. The web sites for the initiative are 30tolaunch.com and GenerationApp.com. The company isn’t taking any chances, snatching up lots of typos of GenerationApp.com including generatonapp.com and generat6ionapp.com. These two and many other domains are registered ... read more ...
Fri 15th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
About 100 ANA members request for new tip turn domains - Around 20% of Association of National Advertisers members applied for new TLDs, but many may have been defensive. One of the most outspoken — and tardy — groups to lobby against ICANN’s expansion of the internet namespace was Association of National Advertisers (ANA). The group lists close to 500 members on its web site, and it appears that around 100 of them ended up applying for new top level domains. (I count 92, but it’s very hard to get this precise ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Guy files cybersquatting censure opposite a page on Blogger - Apparently blogger.com followed by a bunch of numbers infringes this guy’s trademarks. From the WTF category… Nevada resident Steven Barket has filed a federal lawsuit against Google and a John Doe, claiming violations of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and Lanham Act. The offending domain name that violates Barket’s trademarks? blogger.com/profile/10034500688963114971 Yes, that’s a single page on the Blogger.com domain. Barket demands a judgement ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Catholics won’t be means to register .Catholic domain names - No personal second level domains will be allowed for .catholic. If you’re a follower of the Catholic faith and can’t wait to get your hands on yourname.catholic, I’ve got disappointing news for you: it’s not going to happen. The Pontifical Council for Social Communications (PCCS), the applicant for .catholic, plans to run the domain name in a closed manner similar to .gov. Its application states: …individual adherents will not be eligible to register or ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy eyes one month registrations for .home and .casa domains - Company may offer short term registrations if awarded domain names. Go Daddy is proposing a couple twists in its plan to offer .home and .casa domain names to the public. A big one: registrations as short as one month. “Why pay for a year if the domain name will not be needed for a year?”, the company asks in its application. This makes since for real estate domains. When I put my house on the market last year I registered our street address as a .com domain with ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Honey, we screwed adult on my $185,000 new TLD application - Several new top level domain applicants make errors in their applications — including a misspelling of the word “logistics”. I’ve found three instances of typo’s or errors in new top level domain applicants’ strings. I’ve reached out to ICANN to find out if the applicants will be afforded an opportunity to fix these errors as I can’t find anything in the guidebook about it. Logic would say yes in the case of an uncontested string. One obvious typo ... read more ...
Thu 14th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLDs embody during slightest 4 contested .brand applications - Companies battle each other for rights to top level domains. I’ve identified at least four cases of contested .brand top level domain applications, defined here as a case where two different brand holders are going after the same top level domain. .Monster – Monster, Inc. vs. Monster Worldwide, Inc. The former sells really expensive cables and other audiophile products, the later runs job boards. .SAS – Research IP LLC vs. SAS AB. This is a battle I expected ... read more ...