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 28th September 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Uniregistry takes over .HIV domain name - Company takes over struggling top level domain name. Top level domain name registry Uniregistry has taken over ownership and management of the .HIV top level domain name. .HIV launched as a “social cause” TLD about a year ago. It came with a high registration price of about $200, but the registry promised to donate money to HIV/AIDS charities with each visit to a .hiv site. The idea didn’t take off, with only about 500 registrations in the zone file to date. So earlier this year the .hiv backers ... read more ...
 
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GoDaddy Aftermarket with Paul Nicks – DNW Podcast #52 - Paul Nicks, who manages GoDaddy’s aftermarket, discusses the state of domain resales and the GoDaddy platform. Paul Nicks runs the aftermarket for GoDaddy, which includes Afternic and GoDaddy auctions. Paul discusses the current state of the domain aftermarket, including which direction sales and sale prices are moving. He also discusses changes the company is making in the aftermarket and how they’re trying to remove friction from the domain selling and buying process. Paul also provides stats ... read more ...
 
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Another .Co win: Taco Bell regulating Ta.co - Taco Bell is promoting ta.co domain name. The .co domain name extension continues to rack up big name customers, the latest being Taco Bell. The fast food restaurant chain is now promoting ta.co and an upgrade to its website. Now you can order completely customized tacos and other menu items through your mobile phone. Taco Bell bought the domain name directly from the .co registry. For now, typing in ta.co merely forwards you to Taco Bell. When I watch Taco Bell’s introductory video (below), it ... read more ...
 
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UDRP finds laches and that heading is also generic - Panelist questions why case was filed 16 years after domain was registered, and notes that the trademark is also generic. When is a trademark also generic? You probably didn’t know that the hardware chain True Value Company has a trademark on the term “Green Thumb”. It has a registered trademark on the term dating to 1987. I always thought the term meant someone who is good with gardening. I’m not alone, either. Apparently, in the same year of True Value’s trademark registration, a dictionary ... read more ...
 
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Minds + Machines starts share buybacks - Company bought its own shares on Friday. On Friday, Minds + Machines made the first purchase under its share buyback program. The company plans to acquire up to £15 million worth of shares over the next 12 months. The first purchase was just £21,875 for 250,000 ordinary shares. Companies do share buybacks as a way to return capital to shareholders. Generally speaking, the company will cancel the shares it bought back, thus boosting earnings per share and other metrics for the remaining shares. ... read more ...
Sat 26th September 2015
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Volkswagen registers "sucks" and "blows" domain names - Here come the defensive domain name registrations… This week I wrote about how Volkswagen registered a number of domain names related to its diesel emissions scandal. The domains, such as VWdieselinfo.com, were likely registered to disseminate information about recalls. While those domain names weren’t defensive, the company is now going on the defensive with a handful of domain name registrations. Here are some domain names the company registered yesterday: VWBlows.com VWDieselBlows.com VWDieselreall.com ... read more ...
Fri 25th September 2015
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The new and softened Expired Domains Report! - Now with SnapNames, too. Domains expire all over the place, day in day out. Some expirations are shadowed by backorders, which can lead to auctions. Depending on the TLD, the registrar, and – yes – even chance, those auctions may take place at NameJet or at another venue … like SnapNames, which will be contributing sales data to these reports henceforward. Scroll down, and say hello! Some readers may remember that, until last December, most of the results I reported in these articles came from ... read more ...
 
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InternetX Lambo Races to First Place - Car finishes first…at first. This past weekend the InternetX race team had strong podium finishes at the ADAC GT Masters in Zandvoort. InterNetX Reiter Engineering had two cars (initially) place in first and third place. Here’s a picture: Unfortunately, after the race, a 30 second penalty was inflicted for a breach of rules after the safety car phase. I’m not entirely sure what that means. But I heard an unsubstantiated rumor that .Club CEO Colin Campbell was seen running around throwing ... read more ...
 
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Ashley Madison takes down WasHeOnAshleyMadison.com - Arbitration panel awards domain name to dating site owner. Avid Dating Life Inc, the company that operates the AshleyMadison.com site for affair dating, has successfully convinced an arbitration panelist that it should get the domain name WasHeOnAshleyMadison.com. Avid Dating Life filed a UDRP with the World Intellectual Property Organization, arguing that the registrant of the domain name was cybersquatting. Panelist John Swinson agreed. The domain name was registered to someone listed as “Calico ... read more ...
 
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DomainSherpa publisher invests in domain investment height Efty - Deal will help Efty gain exposure. Michael Cyger, publisher of DomainSherpa, has invested in domain name investment platform Efty. In addition to the investment, Cyger will work with the company to build and promote the service. Think of Efty as a control center for your domain name business. After uploading a list of domains to the service, you can track renewals, parking revenue and sales. You can also set up landing pages for your domains through Efty, giving you more control over “for sale” ... read more ...
Thu 24th September 2015
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Male encouragement association nailed for RDNH over Maximize.com - Nucell, LLC, seller of a “male enhancement” product, has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name Maximize.com A three person Czech Arbitration Court panel wrote a scathing finding of reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH), and it was warranted. The owner of the domain name bought it in 2008 for $10,000. The complainant, which may not have been an active company at the time, started harassing the domain name owner a few years later, according to the decision. It doesn’t ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
1&1's new .com promotional price: Free - Forget 99 cents, these domains are now free. Domain name registrars often use discounted prices to get new customers. This is especially the case with their Google Adwords ads, where registrars frequently offer .com domains as loss leaders to get a new customer. 11 has been particularly aggressive, offering $.99 cent .com domain names on its site and in search ads. (The company has a history of investing up front for new customers. It launched with multi-page ads in huge publications promoting free ... read more ...
 
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NameDrive owner rising new startup in Austin - Greg Manriquez launching Videotape app. NameDrive founder Greg Manriquez, who sold the domain parking company to KeyDrive, is working on his next startup. Videotape is an app that allows you to easily add your own video or audio to another video and share it. There are a number of interesting use cases for this, including adding commentary to a video and sharing it on a blog or social media, or adding a short promotional message to a video. Manriquez is self-funding the startup, which has an office ... read more ...
 
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Volkswagen registers domain names associated to emissions scandal - Domain names might be used to provide updates and recall information. Auto maker Volkswagen has registered a handful of domain names related to the diesel emissions scandal. The names don’t seem defensive and could be used to disseminate information about what it is doing in the wake of the revelations that it outfitted cars with software to outsmart emissions tests. [Update 9/24/15 5:20 PM: The nameservers for the domains have been moved to Rackspace and if you visit them you’ll get a login ... read more ...
Wed 23rd September 2015
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Company that bought eBet.com for $1.35M buys another domain name + 20 finish user sales - eBet buys V68.com and GE buys a financial domain name. eBet, which bought its eBet.com domain name from Rick Schwartz for $1.35 million, just paid $44,000 to acquire the domain name v68.com at Sedo. It doesn’t resolve yet. Perhaps an additional brand? v68.com was one of a higher-than-usual 615 domain name transactions taking place at Sedo last week for a total of $1.3 million. Another notable end user buyer is GE. Here’s a look at end user domain name sales from the past week: (You can view ... read more ...
 
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An engaging craziness in UDRP rulings - This panelist has a different standard for the first element of UDRP. This morning I was reading the UDRP decision for CallFinder.com. Panelist David Einhorn got the answer correct — the domain name shouldn’t have been transferred to a company that got a trademark for CallFinder many years after the domain name was registered. But I was surprised to see that Einhorn found that 800 Response Marketing, LLC failed to prove the first prong of the UDRP. The first prong basically says that the domain ... read more ...
 
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UDRP row doesn't give behind OnlineMBA.com, stolen from Moniker - Company says domain name was stolen from its Moniker account, but UDRP panel determines it didn’t prove trademark rights. An Austin company that once owned OnlineMBA.com has failed to recover the allegedly stolen domain name through a UDRP. Mascot Media Circle, LLC has owned the domain name since 2010. This summer it realized it was no longer in control of the domain name, and alleges that it was stolen from its Moniker account. This sounds plausible, given the number of security issues discussion ... read more ...
Tue 22nd September 2015
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MySchool.com lawsuit moves brazen with several twists and turns - Lawyers withdraw, defendant asks for attorneys fees based on comment on DNW. A lawsuit over the domain name MySchool.com is heating up, with the defendant’s lawyers citing a comment made on Domain Name Wire as grounds to recover attorneys fees. Joseph Carpenter, who runs the site MySchool411.com, filed a federal lawsuit to get the domain name MySchool.com. This was after he lost two separate UDRP cases for the domain name. Carpenter has switched lawyers in the case multiple times. Most recently, ... read more ...
 
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Kaiser registers "killing" domains - Will these defensive domain name registrations actually deter detractors? A Mark Monitor client has registered a bunch of defensive domain names about how the company killed mom, dad and grandma. Although the registrations are protected with whois privacy, I can only assume the registrant is healthcare company and Mark Monitor client Kaiser Permanente. A number of sites have been set up to criticize the company, including KaiserKills.com, KaiserPapers.org and kaiserthrive.org. The domain names registered ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
After 50 DNW podcasts, here are a tip Five - This week I published my 51st weekly Domain Name Wire Podcast. The podcasts are a lot of work to produce, but it’s been very rewarding. It has given me the chance to sit down for extended, in-depth conversations with key people in the domain name industry and provide these to you. You can listen to all previous episodes from your browser here. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes (just search for “Domain Name Wire” in podcasts). Android users can use Stitcher. There’s not much ... read more ...
 
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Get a ambience of dmexco in these videos - Videos show large crowd at digital marketing conference. The dmexco digital marketing conference in Germany last week attracted over 40,000 people. Sedo has published two videos from the event. The first shows scenes from the conference, including people interacting with Sedo’s exhibit. Sedo partnered with a number of top level domain name companies to put the exhibit together. As it did last year, the company also offered free frozen yogurt with toppings named after top level domain names. The ... read more ...
 
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Minds + Machines posts earnings, skeleton £15 million share buyback - Company continues its shift to sales and marketing organization. Minds + Machines released unaudited first half results this morning. The company reported $1.974 in billings for the quarter — this is essentially a revenue number if it didn’t have to recognize domain registration revenue over time. Its adjusted EBITDA using the billings number was -$1.216 million. Using traditional accounting principles, the company had earnings of -$3.695. The company’s board has approved a plan to return ... read more ...
Mon 21st September 2015
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Endurance CEO takes money compensate cut, with intensity large share payday - Ravichandran could get up to 3.7 million additional shares of EIGI stock. Endurance International Group CEO Hari Ravichandran is taking a big cash pay cut in return for shares in the company if it hits free cash flow targets. Ravichandran’s annual salary will be reduced from $750,000 to $200,000 and he won’t receive any cash bonuses for 2015, 2016 and 2017. The upside: the potential to get another 3.7 million shares in the company over the next three years. Shares currently trade for $14 a share, ... read more ...
 
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Microsoft registers 6 2-letter domain names - Microsoft registers at least a half dozen short domains. New top level domain name company Donuts released thousands of two character domains under its top level domain names last week. Microsoft was among the buyers. I count at least a half dozen two character domains registered by the company: ad.center ie.domains ie.gallery ie.photos os.expert pc.engineering The top four names are arguably brand domains, while the last two are more generic/descriptive. IE are the initials for Internet Explorer, ... read more ...
 
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UDRPSearch owners gets UDRP win - Company behind UDRP search site wins its on UDRP. Virtual Point, the company that runs UDRP site UDRPSearch.com, has successfully defended a UDRP for the domain name addicting-games.com. Complainant Defy Media runs the online games site AddictingGames.com. Its predecessor-in-interest registered the domain name in 2002; Virtual Point registered the hyphenated version in 2003. The case turned on the trademark dates for “Addicting Games”. Defy Mewdia argued that it was a popular site by the time ... read more ...