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.

Tue 29th May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tumblr picks adult Tumblr.co.uk in dispute - Company turns to dispute resolution service to get control of key UK domain name. Blogging service Tumblr has obtained the United Kingdom country code domain name Tumblr.co.uk through a dispute. Tumblr filed the dispute with registry Nominet’s Dispute Resolution Service against Paul Guerin of France. Guerin did not respond to the complaint, and the arbitration panelist issued a summary decision. With .uk disputes, unlike .com and .net, arbitration panels can issue ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Arbitration association loses domain settlement case - JAMS can’t have domain name, WIPO rules. Oh, the irony. An arbitration company has lost a UDRP arbitration case. JAMS, a.k.a. Jams/Endispute, LLC filed an arbitration case with World Intellectual Property Organization over the domain name jamsarbitration.com. The registrant of the domain was upset over a decision JAMS came to in a case and created the web site to voice his opinion on the matter. He didn’t respond to the complaint, but wrote to WIPO arguing that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A registrar’s take on law coercion wish list for domain registrations - Michele Neylon opines about registrar accreditation negotiations. Earlier this month I wrote about what various law enforcement agencies would like you to do before registering a domain. Although well intentioned, the requirements would wreak havoc on the domain name ecosystem. Michele Neylon, who runs Irish domain registrar Blacknight, just posted a blog entry about what he thinks the changes would mean for domain registrants. The title is spot on: Don’t Make Us ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
China reopens .cn to individuals, though registrars might be delayed to follow - Individuals can now register .cn domains, but domain registrars may still be cautious about offering the domains. After clamping down on .cn domain registrations a few years ago, China is beginning to open up its country code top level domain again. Yesterday China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the registry for .cn domain names, announced that registration would again be available to individuals instead of just businesses. CNNIC announced restrictions ... read more ...
 
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ICANN announces new TLD exhibit date, digital archery schedule, 500 unprepared applications - Dates are finalized and a lot of applicants have work to do before tomorrow. ICANN just provided a timeline for the new top level domain application process going forward. The “big reveal” date, when ICANN releases the full list of applicants and the strings they applied for, will be June 13. Digital Archery, which will be used for slotting which batch an application falls into, will run June 8 to June 28. Additionally, ICANN says there are over 500 incomplete ... read more ...
Fri 25th May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Olympic Committee sues man it won UDRP against - USOC claims person continues to infringe on its trademarks. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has filed a lawsuit (pdf) against Alan Bachand, an individual with whom the organization has a history when it comes to domain names. Back in 2009 the USOC objected to Bachand’s use of the domain name OlympicsBestHotels.com to pitch hotels for the Vancouver Olympics. It ended up filing a UDRP against Bachand and won control of the domain. Now the USOC is objecting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TRAFFIC sets dates for Las Vegas show - It’s a year away, but dates are finalized. For a while there were too many domainer-targeted domain conferences. Then the pendulum swung the other way. TRAFFIC is adding an additional show in 2013, and today it announced the final dates. The show will begin Wednesday, May 29th in the evening. It will conclude with breakfast on Saturday, June 1 2013. The event was originally planned to start earlier in the week, but organizers received concerns about its proximity ... read more ...
 
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What domains Kanye West and others bought this week - Kanye West buys domain name for new short film. Kanye West has made some interesting naming decisions in the past. So let’s give him credit for buying CruelSummer.com for $3,000. Cruel Summer is the name of his new short film. Here are some other end user domain buys from the past week. All sales took place at Afternic unless otherwise noted. Forbes writer Rich Karlgaard, who has written about the “Power of Pairs”, paid $1,595 for PowerPairs.com. I wrote about ... read more ...
 
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Groupon registers domains for remuneration complement and POS - Local deals company registers three domain names for retailer payment systems. Groupon registered the domain names GrouponPayments.com, GrouponPOS.com, and GrouponTerminal.com on May 22. Now we know why. VentureBeat reports that the company is testing a payments solution to competed with Square and PayPal. Apparently the company is offering an iPod Touch with the card reader to merchants free of charge, and the service is priced very competitively compared to competitors. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hipsters.com for sale: Afternic teams adult with SnapNames for auction and .Me kicks off during Sedo - Where are my black framed glasses? SnapNames just started its “Summer Kick-Off Auction“, run in conjunction with Afternic. Although most of the domains in the auction are owned by Afternic or an affiliate company, some of the domains appear to be owned by the company’s larger clients. Compared to recent auction lists, this one looks to be a winner. My personal favorite: Hipsters.com for under $10,000. That’s a great domain. Ambitious.com $10k-$25k Authorization.com ... read more ...
Thu 24th May 2012
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Warner Bros buys Injustice.com for $7500 – a new online game? - Movie studio buys domain Injustice.com — for a new online game or movie? Movie studio Warner Bros. has purchased the domain name Injustice.com for $7,500 through Afternic. This is one of those domains with many uses, but that the owner must have known could end up being the title of a movie or game. It’s kind of like Invasion.com, which is in Sedo’s Great Domains auction this week. However, Injustice.com has a lot more commercial uses than Invasion.com. It ... read more ...
 
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Mayor arrested after illegally accessing GoDaddy comment and cancelling domain - Mayor and his son accused of hacking into email and then illegally accessing GoDaddy account to cancel domain name registration. West New York mayor Felix Roque and his son were arrested after allegedly working together to hack into an email account to gain access to a GoDaddy account and take down a domain name related to a recall effort against the mayor. The complaint alleges that Roque’s son, Joseph Roque, was first able to compromise the email address for the ... read more ...
 
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Jeweler sues Oversee.net for cybersquatting - Jeweler files claim over six domain registrations. Jewelry company Tacori Enterprises has sued Oversee.net in U.S. District Court for cybersquatting. Tacori alleges (pdf) that Oversee.net is cybersquatting with at least six domain names: Taccori.com Tacorri.com Tacoriiv.com TacoriRings.com Tacoti.com Tracori.com Tacori alleges that Oversee.net “is a serial cybersquatter who registers, uses, and traffics in domain names that are confusingly similar to famous or distinctive ... read more ...
 
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Chicago Tribune wants to take down “Occupy” sites - Sites claim to be news for the 99%. [Update: the naysayers in the comments were correct: The Tribune Company lost the case.] The Chicago Tribune Company has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization over “occupy” web sites using its brand. The complaint targets occupiedchicagotribune.org and occupychicagotribune.org, the former of which is a web site that states “We’re proud to have no affiliation whatsoever with the 1% Chicago Tribune ... read more ...
Wed 23rd May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Where in a universe are Domain Name Wire readers? - Most visits are from the U.S., but almost half from other countries. Most visits to Domain Name Wire come from the U.S. — but it only represents 52% of the total. Here are the top 10 countries in terms of visits to Domain Name Wire through the end of April: 1. United States 2. India 3. Canada 4. United Kingdom 5. Australia 6. Germany 7. Pakistan 8. Egypt 9. China 10. France India represents just 6% of visits, so you can see that there’s quite a long tale of locations. Big ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The mobile web might be growing, though how “mobile” is it? - Tablet traffic is very different from mobile phone traffic. I recently looked through the my Google Analytics account to understand how visitors access Domain Name Wire. 96% of visits come from a traditional computer such as a laptop or desktop. That leaves a relatively small number coming from mobile platforms. But more shocking to me is how the mobile number breaks down. Almost all mobile visits come from the iPad. To me, iPad traffic isn’t truly mobile. Sure, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Wednesday morning domain thoughts - A few thoughts about the domain industry. I’ll be at a conference all day, so I’m going to kick today off with some recent thoughts about the domain name business. I have other posts in queue for today. …ICANN will be under intense pressure to hit its deadlines now that it’s sitting on $350 million + of applicant fees. Before it could just say “hey, it’s the process”. But now people have real money on the line. …My guess is Frank Schilling either ... read more ...
Tue 22nd May 2012
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Why we switched to GoDaddy hosting - Domain Name Wire is now hosted by GoDaddy.com A couple weeks ago I changed web hosts to GoDaddy.com. Several people have asked why I decided to change hosts in the first place and why I chose GoDaddy. Why I changed hosts When I started Domain Name Wire I hosted it with the same host I’d been using for my other sites for 5 years. I’m not going to mention the host by name because they’ve really been pretty good to me for the better part of a decade. It’s a ... read more ...
 
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How large is a new TLD opportunity? TLDH valued during $60 million - Publicly traded new TLD company has a solid market value. Top Level Domain Holdings, a pure play company focused on new top level domains, has a market cap of around £ 39 million. That’s over $60 million USD. We’re talking about a company that basically has no revenue. So far it has just been spending on the new TLD process. As of last February the company had about £ 15 million in cash. A lot of that has surely been spent since then. But to be conservative, ... read more ...
 
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Republicans emanate Cory Booker web sites - Republican National Committee registers Cory Booker domains and creates petition sites. Ever since Newark, New Jersey mayor and super-hero Cory Booker kinda-sorta-maybe got on the Obama campaign’s case for attacking Mitt Romney on his Bain record, Republicans everywhere have been rejoicing. That includes the Republican National Committee, which just registered the domain names IStandWithCory.com and IStandwithCoryBooker.com and has created a web site for them. ... read more ...
Mon 21st May 2012
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TLDH adds .budapest to the plcae tip turn domains - TLDH adds to its stable of geo top level domains with .budapest. Top Level Domain Holdings Limited (AIM:TLDH.L), parent company of Minds + Machines, announced today that it has applied for the .budapest domain name with the blessing of the city of Budapest. The city will earn a revenue share from the deal. TLDH is also on the applications for .London, .Miami, .Bayern and .NRW. .NRW is for North-Rhine Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany. These applications ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain registrar offers UDRP insurance - Registration service offers free insurance against expensive but unfounded UDRP filings. Francois Carrillo, the guy behind Domaining.com, has launched a new domain registrar (an eNom reseller) with an innovative twist: “UDRP insurance”. Basically, if you’re hit with a UDRP on one of your domains registered at DONA.com then you’ll get assistance with finding a domain attorney. Selected domain attorneys offer discounted rates to DONA customers. And if you successfully ... read more ...
 
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My picks for Sedo’s Great Domains auction - Great Domains auction ends Thursday. Here’s what I like. This month’s Great Domains auction at Sedo ends on Thursday. The lineup doesn’t include as many big ticket domains as usual; there’s only one domain with a reserve over $25,000. But that’s OK, there are some good domains worthy of attention. Here are ones that popped out to me: Reconnect.com – With a reserve range $10k-$25k, this would be good only if you have a plan for the domain. I can think ... read more ...
 
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How NOT to name your association and secure your domain - When you know it’s time to select a different company name… A Colorado company just lost a UDRP for Qwizzle.com, and it’s a great example of botched company naming. The company, Qwizzle, LLC, knew that Qwizzle.com was taken when it came up with its name. It tried to contact the owner of Qwizzle.com but had no luck. It still decided to launch its business as Qwizzle but then filed a UDRP to try to get the domain name. It lost the UDRP because Qwizzle.com was ... read more ...
 
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Baylor Sucks (again) with BaylorSucks.com - Baylor University gets “sucks” domain back after letting it expire. It’s pretty easy to sit down here in Austin and say that Baylor sucks. You can get on its case for yanking a gay student’s scholarship. And for waiting until the 90s to lift a ban on dancing on campus. There’s also that little fact that the school is in Waco. (The one thing we can’t do any more is say that its sports programs suck.) But now the university is claiming a bit of suckiness ... read more ...