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 14th February 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Why domain registrars personally like VeriSign’s cost hikes - They won’t tell you this, but domain registrars kinda like VeriSign’s annual price hikes. (Just about) every year VeriSign hikes the price of .com domain names 7%. The registrars publicly moan about the price hikes and send notices to their customers about how they have to pass the along the costs. But consumer domain registrars actually don’t mind. They kind of like these price hikes. First, they typically raise their prices more than the 7% VeriSign adds. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
TLD focus slots competence turn valuable - Latecomers may need to tag along with companies that have already registered for TLD application system. As of yesterday 100 people or entities had registered with ICANN’s TLD application system. Each registered user can apply for up to 50 TLDs, which means technically 5,000 top level domains could be applied for with just the existing users. That’s unlikely, as many of the registered users are probably targeting one or two TLDs. The deadline to register for the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is induction an lapsed domain “swiping”? - Swiper, no swiping! I got a chuckle this morning from a “hard hitting” investigative story in Orange County. WFTV.com reports on Orange County sheriff’s candidate John Tegg. The TV station says that someone “swiped” the domain name for Tegg’s old campaign web site, johnteggforsheriff.com, and redirected it to a rival. Swiped, eh? Well, the domain expired in April 2011 and was picked up by a new registrant in November, according to historical whois records ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
NeuStar readies new domain name slogan - Domain registry files trademark application for new slogan. NeuStar, Inc. has filed an intent-to-use trademark application for “WHERE BUSINESS LIVES. ONLINE.” The application was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last Thursday (serial number 85538584). NeuStar is the registry behind .biz and will be an active player in the new top level domain business. The filing is for Goods and Services including “computer services, namely maintaining a registry ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Register.com $3.95 domain registration banking code - Register.com offers below cost registrations. I usually don’t post special domain registration offers and coupon codes, but one landed in my inbox this afternoon that’s worth promoting. (Actually, my spam box.) Register.com is offering one year new registrations for $3.95 each. It’s only good for the first year and there’s a limit of three domains. The offer terms also say “for new customers only”. To get the special price use coupon code Reg395ab. I’m ... read more ...
Mon 13th February 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mothers Against Drunk Driving takes on MADDSEXY - Company files trademark lawsuit, demands lingerie company cease using domain name. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, known by its acronym MADD, is taking on lingerie company MADDSEXY in a trademark lawsuit (pdf). Among MADD’s requests is that MADDSEXY cease using its domain name Maddsexy.com. According to the advocacy group: Defendants’ promotion of lingerie products, along with their highly sexualized portrayal of women in their promotion of their products, is likely ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Level Domain Holdings releases annual report - Report details last years results including director remuneration. Top Level Domain Holdings has released its annual report (pdf) for the year ending October 31, 2011. The company owns 100% of new TLD applicant and consultancy Minds and Machines LLC, 65% of a group going after the .nyc top level domain, 25% of a group going after .eco, as well as the web sites TutorialBlog and AppCraver. As would be expected of a company betting on new top level domains, it continues ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hover’s beauty is in the simplicity - Tucows’ Hover makes registering domains simple. One of the most common questions I’m asked by non-domainer friends is which registrar I recommend they use. It’s a tough question to answer. I typically try to find out more about what they’re looking for. Will they register a bunch of domains? Are they tech savvy? I think I have a new recommendation for friends that want a simple way to register a handful of domain names: Hover. (Yes, I know the Hover brand ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker auction has 29 bids with 3 days to go - Extended auction on SnapNames platform ends this Thursday. Moniker’s extended auction from this month’s DOMAINfest ends on Thursday afternoon. Already 29 of the 324 domains in the auction have received bids. This extended auction is a bit different from previous ones because it has reserves. In the past the extended auctions didn’t have reserves, which effectively meant the company disclosed the reserve price of domains that didn’t sell in the live auction ... read more ...
Sun 12th February 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Hundreds of Whitney Houston domains purebred after death - Singer’s death prompts speculators to register Whitney Houston related domain names. Speculators have registered a flurry of domain names related to Whitney Houston since the singer’s death yesterday. According to domain registrar GoDaddy, 325 Whitney Houston related domain names were registered in fewer than 24 hours after her death. You’ll find a lot of Houston domain names on eBay. And most of them are worthless. You can pick up WhitneyHoustonDiedAt48.COM ... read more ...
Fri 10th February 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN reaffirms second turn of new gTLDs - Board instructs CEO to outline plan and steps for opening a second round. ICANN’s board of directors has passed a resolution reaffirming that it plans to open another round of new top level domain applications as “expeditiously as possible”. The resolution instructs the CEO to create a work plan that outlines the steps necessary to initiate a second round of applications. This includes addressing Governmental Advisory Committee concerns over trademark protection ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Level Domain Holdings raises $14.2 million - Company has more money to apply for top level domains. Publicly traded Top Level Domain Holdings Limited has added £9,031,139 (US $14.2 million) to to its war chest to go after the top level domain market, the company announced today. Top Level Domain Holdings owns Minds + Machines. The placement will be used for working capital including slotting and application fees for applying for new top level domain names. The company is applying for top level domains for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Auctions sole 38,366 domains final month including Go.Pro for $40k - A phenomenal .pro sale among domain sales on GoDaddy Auctions. GoDaddy Auctions sold 38,366 domain names last month, about 1,000 fewer than it sold in December. That includes the eye popping sale of Go.Pro for $40,000. That’s not a typo. The domain was purchased by a doctor in Maryland. Other top sales for the month include: diy.org $60,000 bestrecipes.com $45,000 uros.com $30,000 quod.com $30,000 10-4.com $16,000 eventguru.com $15,925 retireme.com $15,495 definedbenefitplan.com $15,000 gamebreak.com $12,650 About ... read more ...
Thu 9th February 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest assemblage was down, though still strong - Fewer people turn out to this year’s event but it remains the industry’s biggest conference. About 600 people attended last week’s DOMAINfest conference in Santa Monica. While down from previous years’ 700 attendees, it still makes it the largest conference in the domain name industry. Here’s why I think attendance was down by about a hundred… 1. Still sick from last year. Hey, the memories of last year’s sickness that afflicted 100+ people is still ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Orphaned domain listings still mucking adult domain sales process - When domains change hands or expire, “for sale” listings remain. [Update: I received a message from GoDaddy saying a solution is in the works and should be complete within a couple weeks.] [Update 2 Feb 20: GoDaddy says it has fixed the problem. If anyone has the same problem in the future please let me know.] In October I wrote about how domain name marketplaces still struggle with “orphan listings”. These are domains listed for sale that have either expired ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
8 observations about domainers - Sound familiar? They say there is a hint of truth in every stereotype. With that in mind, I present eight observations about domainers. Sure, they may be about the stereotypical domainer, but I’m sure you’ll nod your head to at least a few of them. 1. While companies think domain names are less important than they really are, Domainers think domains are more important than they really are. 2. Domainers always assume the worst about actions their service providers ... read more ...
Wed 8th February 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
2012 Domain Name Wire Survey…the formula are in - A look at who took this year’s survey. Domain Name Wire’s 7th annual domain name industry survey has concluded with over 1,500 participants. I’m busy collating and analyzing the results, which will be posted on Domain Name Wire throughout the month of February. Here are data about the participants in this year’s survey: 1,593 survey takers 25.8% of people who took the survey own more than 1,000 domain names. 27 participants own more than 10,000 domain names. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DealDash buys gone Swoopo.com domain name (and 22 other finish user sales) - DealDash buys defunct rival’s domain name. Remember Swoopo.com, the auction site where you had to pay for each bid? It shut down amidst controversy, and now a competitor has purchased its domain name via Sedo. UK based DealDash Ltd paid 10,000 euros for Swoopo.com and now forwards it to DealDash.com. This was just one of many “end user” domain purchases over the past week. Here’s a look at 22 others. All took place at Afternic unless otherwise noted. College ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Grocery sequence wins initial .XXX UDRP case - HEB gets HEB.xxx. HEB Grocery Company, headquartered in San Antonio, is the first complainant to win a uniform domain name dispute resolution (UDRP) case for a .xxx domain name. Atlanta resident Eric Gonzales registered the domain name after he claims to have contacted the grocery chain to see if they were going to register it. Gonzales’ approach is certainly interesting. Here’s how the World Intellectual Property Forum panel summed it up: Respondent is an individual, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Judge issues initial outcome in Monte Cahn v. Oversee.net - Judge sides with Oversee.net on narrow issue in lawsuit. The Honorable Stephen V. Wilson has issued a verdict in the first trial between Monte Cahn and his former employer, Oversee.net. The decision was extremely narrow, covering just one aspect of Cahn’s claims against the company. Cahn had a bonus plan that was essentially an earnout from when Oversee.net bought Moniker from Seevast. It provided up to $13 million over three years. One of the bonus measures was ... read more ...
Tue 7th February 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
6 questions about DOMAINfest answered - A look back at last week’s DOMAINfest conference. Before heading to DOMAINfest I posed six questions that would be answered by the end of the week. Here are the answers. 1. How will Oversee.net’s new leadership present itself? Just before the conference began, Oversee.net announced that co-presidents Debra Domeyer and Scott Morrow had been promoted to co-CEOs. I haven’t seen many “co-CEO” type situations end favorably, but they seem to be handling it well ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Ping heading in jeopardy, though Ping sailing through - PING golf manufacturer still has a TLD trademark going through the system. Last month I wrote about how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had caught on to an trademark application for .Ping. It was filed by Karsten Manufacturing, which owns the PING line of golf products. Although the USPTO has a policy of not allowing trademarks for top level domain names, .Ping had proceeded to publication until it was caught by an examiner. But I just noticed another application ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Key-Systems CEO discusses Moniker and SnapNames acquisition - No dramatic changes on tap but more ccTLDs and other improvements on the way. KeyDrive’s acquisition of Moniker and SnapNames last week has shaken up the domain name investor ecosystem. I just talked to Key-Systems CEO Alexander Siffrin to better understand what this means for customers. (KeyDrive includes Key-Systems Group and NameDrive Group, as well as the recently acquired companies.) If you’re worried about dramatic changes to how you do business with Moniker ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Kyoto tip turn domain in a works - .Kyoto may join .Tokyo as top level domain. It appears that .kyoto may be one of the location specific top level domains that will hit the web in coming years. The announcement is in Japanese and all translations I’ve seen are rather jumbled, but it appears that GMO Registry is behind the effort. [Update: I’ve heard that DOTKYOTO COMPANY LIMITED is behind the effort and has government approval. It is seeking a registry back end provider, and GMO is one of the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hey NAF, this is a classical instance of retreat domain hijacking - Respondent wins but should have gotten more than that. National Arbitration Forum panelist Beatrice Onica Jarka got the “answer” correct in a recent UDRP case. But she really should have considered reverse domain name hijacking. The case was brought by deals site Shopzooey, Inc. Shopzooey, Inc was founded in 2011. Upon finding the domain name Shopzooey.com already registered, the company registered MyShopZooey.com in July 2011. ShopZooey.com was registered in ... read more ...