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.

Thu 3rd May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
You unequivocally need to get on a bound cost domain bandwagon - SedoMLS and AfternicDLS are changing the game. Sedo released its first quarter domain name market study today (pdf). For the first time ever, fixed price “buy now” listings were the company’s most common type of sale. 39% of sales were buy now purchases and 34% were offer-counter offer purchases. There’s a simple reason for this: end user buyers don’t want to negotiate. And they want their domain now. I suspect a lot of these sales occurred through SedoMLS. ... read more ...
Wed 2nd May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Union pays for VeriGreedy.com and 14 other finish user domain sales - 15 end user domain purchases in the past week. Communication Workers of America bought the clever domain VeriGreedy.com last week to take a jab at Verizon. It looks like the domain owner wasn’t very greedy, too. Here are details on that sale and other “end user” domain buys from the past week. Sales at Afternic South Texas Innovations LLC bought STIConstruction.com for $1,895. Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port, which owns NCSP-net.com, bought NCSP.com for $6,400. San ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
RipOff Reports files the possess Ripoff Report - Site files complaint over .info domain name. The controversial RipOff Report web site that allows people to leave reports of alleged ripoffs and scams has filed a “report” of its own. The owner of RipOff Report has filed a UDRP case against the registrant of RipOffReport.info. RipOff Report’s web address is RipOffReport.com. RipOffReport.com is one of the top 1,000 sites in the U.S. according to Quantcast. Until recently RipOffReport.info was registered to a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why is ICANN still usually budgeting for 500 new TLD applications? - Main ICANN budget still assumes 500 applications. In January ICANN released its framework for the FY 2013 budget (which begins in July). Its framework for new TLD revenue was based on 500 applications for new top level domains. ICANN just published its draft budget and now it’s budgeting for… only 500 applications. I realize these things have a long lead time, but this is ludicrous. It’s quite clear there will be over 1,000 applications for new top level domains. Releasing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How ICANN will spend $12 million some-more of your income subsequent year - …and that doesn’t include new TLD costs. ICANN’s latest proposed budget segments out the core ICANN functions and the new top level domain program. But even its core functions budget are slated to grow by nearly $12 million next financial year compared to what it expects to spend in the current year (FY 12). Here’s why. Contractual Compliance: $2.4 million increase Let’s face it, ICANN’s contractual compliance has historically sucked. Fixing the problem ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mastercard loses another Priceless case - Mastercard is devaluing its “Priceless” mark. Last Friday I wrote about how Mastercard lost UDRP cases for pricelessistanbul.com and pricelessamsterdam.com. It just lost another case (pdf), this one involving pricelesslondon.com, pricelessparis.com, pricelessnewyork.com, pricelesslosangeles.com and pricelessmexico.com. Why is Mastercard suddenly going after PricelessCity domain names? It appears to be related to its move to associate its “Priceless” trademark ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Here’s how most any TLD generates for ICANN - A look at registry fees and transaction fees. ICANN’s contracts with registry operators for existing top level domains represent a hodgepodge of one off arrangements. In its recently released draft budget, ICANN included a table showing how it forecasts its revenue from each of these contracts for FY 2013. Seeing the data side-by-side is very intriguing. It’s also interesting when you add in how much ICANN collects in transaction fees from registrants/registrars ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afterthoughts about Ammar Kubba’s new blog - Ammar Kubba pens a new blog. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the domain industry, it’s “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Thought Convergence founder Ammar Kubba is one of those people that could easily be misjudged. With his big diamond earring and gold chain necklace, you might mistakenly put him in the wrong bucket. In reality, Ammar is one of the nicest and most thoughtful people in the industry. And now he’s getting ready to enter the blogging ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hey buddy, it’s substantially too late to heading .NYC - A good way to waste $325. The guy who just recently wasted his money filing a trademark application for .music is at it again. Joseph Walker DBA ExtraWeb Ent just filed trademark applications for .nyc and .shop. New York City has already announced plans for the .nyc domain name and has selected a registry partner to bring it to market. Numerous companies want to bring .shop to market as well. Both of these applications will be summarily rejected by the U.S. Patent ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sex + prohibited amicable site = vital press - Sex.com relaunches as a Pinterest clone for adult photos. I’ve got to hand it to the company that bought Sex.com for $13 million: nice PR move. The site was just relaunched in beta as a “Pinterest for Sex”. That’s a nice way to get buzz. For news story research purposes I just checked out the site. I assure you it’s NSFW. I’ve got to believe the site is going to run into all sorts of copyright issues with this new format. The company put out a “press ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN: 105 new TLD field might have had information exposed - ICANN releases data about new top level domain application system bug. 105 applicants for new top level domains might have had the filenames of some of their application documents and their username exposed, ICANN revealed today. The non-profit also revealed that 50 applicants might have been able to view these details. Of course, just because filenames or usernames were exposed doesn’t mean that someone actually saw them or knew what they were seeing. And even ... read more ...
Tue 1st May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Owner of SMA.de files UDRP opposite SMA.com - Spinning the wheel in UDRP roulette. SMA Solar Technology AG has filed a UDRP case with World Intellectual Property Organization for the domain name SMA.com. SMA.com belongs to Specialized Micro Architects. It was originally registered in 1995 and currently has an expiration date of 2017. The oldest whois record at Domain Tools shows that Specialized Micro Architects has owned the domain since at least 2001, although it may have been the original registrant. The most ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XXX registry and many other domain companies conduct to INTA assembly subsequent week - There’s money in brand protection. 9,000 people are expected to attend the International Trademark Association (INTA) annual meeting in Washington, DC May 5-9. Some of the topics on the agenda for next week include domain names and how companies can protected their brands in an expanding top level name space. There will be a lot of domain name companies in attendance. Here are some that are exhibiting: 101domain.com DomainTools GoDaddy ICM Registry (.xxx registry) Key-Systems Marksmen ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
3 .com typos that might be practical for as new TLDs - They may have meaning but are very similar to .com. A number of country codes, such as .cm and .co, can result in misguided visitors looking for a .com web address. Will we see some other domains that could be considered typos push their way through the new top level domain process? I first thought of this when I wrote about .cpm. An online ad company is trying to trademark the term, which stands for “cost per thousand”. As readers pointed out to me, .cpm is just ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top 5 Domain Name Wire stories of Apr 2012 - Here’s a look back at April on Domain Name Wire. 1. GoDaddy now offers free domain appraisals, but… – Go Daddy has dropped the price of its automated domain appraisals to zero, but don’t expect it to give you an accurate value for good domain names. 2. Francois Carrillo’s ZUT.com hit with UDRP – the entrepreneur behind Domaining.com is forced to defend his ZUT.com domain name in a UDRP case. 3. From $10 domain registration to $4,050 sale in two weeks; ... read more ...
Mon 30th April 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Blog.com site and blog network adult for sale - Network with close to 20 million monthly page views goes up for sale. Domain name marketplace Sedo announced today that it is the exclusive broker for the sale of Blog.com. Blog.com launched as a self-serve blog network (a la Blogger.com) in 2010. It boasts two million bloggers (according to the site) and had 19.3 million page views in March (according to Sedo). The site has an Alexa overall rank of 697 and and Quantcast U.S. rank of 1,794. Blog.com is owned by Portugalmail, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Which domains a tip 10 domain registrars promote - .co is a favorite among non-VeriSign domains. Registrars have many options when it comes to which top level domains to promote to customers. Sometimes this is based purely on demand calculations. In other instances domain registries strike deals with domain registrars to give them premium shelf space or promotion on their home pages. I just checked the top 10 domain registrars. These results are for either the drop down box in their domain search function or the results ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This could have been retreat domain hijacking had a domain owners responded… - Your comadre wouldn’t approve. The National Arbitration Forum has found against Texas company Comadre Commerce, LLC in arbitration over the domain name Comadre.com. This is despite the owner of the domain name not responding. Had the owner responded, this case could have been an easy case of reverse domain name hijacking. First things first, comadre is a generic term meaning “godmother” in Spanish. Second, Comadre Commerce said it had a trademark registration ... read more ...
Fri 27th April 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
FIBA to request for a .basketball tip turn domain - Organization taps Minds + Machines to assist with registry services. FIBA, is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations, has applied for the .basketball top level domain, the organization announced this wee. FIBA partnered with ROAR Domains, LLC and Top Level Domain Holdings (AIM:TLDH) for the application. TLDH subsidiary Minds + Machines will provide the backend registry services for the domain name should FIBA’s application be successful. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mastercard’s “Priceless” symbol isn’t priceless, row rules - WIPO arbitration panel finds against Mastercard on “Priceless” claims. A World Intellectual Property Organization panelist has ruled against Mastercard in a dispute over domain names related to its “Priceless” trademark. The credit card company filed complaints against pricelessistanbul.com and pricelessamsterdam.com, saying they violated their trademark rights. In both cases the owner of the domains didn’t bother to respond to the allegations. But panelist ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker Spring auction begins, and sites get new logos - Moniker Spring auction springs into action. Moniker just started its Spring Auction on SnapNames. The auction features 103 domain names, many with no reserves. Some of the no reserve domains are: NJLawFirms.com Obese.net UPCbarcodes.com attempt.net grilled.net Several of the no reserve domains already have bids. Other notable domains in the auction include IdentifyTheft.com, Security.com, Platinum.com, and Unplugged.com. In other Moniker/SnapNames news, It looks ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
ICANN some-more than a week divided from opening TAS again - At least a couple weeks until application period concludes. ICANN’s online system for new top level domain applications is likely more than a week away from opening up again. If that’s the case, that means we’re at least a couple weeks away from the application period concluding. In an update posted this evening, ICANN said applicants that had data potentially exposed by the bug will be notified within the next seven business days. They will also be told who ... read more ...
Thu 26th April 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mimicking a company’s whois record to censor a cybersquatting domain - As I said, you don’t understand the difference between “evidence” and “proof”. They are not the same thing. If a bank was robbed on Elm Street at 9PM, then if a witness claims to have seen me on Elm Street at 9PM, that testimony is evidence that I robbed the bank. Is it proof? No. A lot of people were on that street. The witness could be mistaken, etc. But, it is one piece of evidence which, in connection with other evidence, may advance the argument that I robbed the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO row steals 4 minute domain from BuyDomains - Panel hands down the wrong decision in FACI.com case. A three member World Intellectual Property Organization panel has found that BuyDomains (NameMedia) registered FACI.com in bad faith. The case makes no sense. It seems that the panel’s judgement hinges on the fact that BuyDomains knew about the complainant’s trademark for FACI upon acquisition of the domain. But BuyDomains made it clear that, although it became aware of the trademark, it was very limited in ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Aremi Group relates for .art (and claims trademarks) - Company announces plans for .art and says it has trademarks for it as well. Aremi Group is the latest to announce a formal application for a top level domain, announcing (pdf) that it has applied for .art. The Luxembourg company says the mission of .art is to “provide a unique online space in which creatively-inclined members of the Internet community, individuals and institutions alike, can share their works and ideas with those seeking creative content.” The ... read more ...