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 19th December 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ari Goldberger gets retreat domain hijacking win for Kevin Ham - Planate Management Group guilty of attempting reverse domain name hijacking. Ari Goldberger’s lawfirm ESQwire has won a reverse domain name hijacking claim on behalf of client Vertical Axis, which is Kevin Ham’s company. The guilty party is Planate Management Group LLC of Alexandria, Virginia. The company owns Planate.net but wanted to get its hands on Planate.com in this dispute. Yet Planate didn’t start using the name “planate” until 2008 according to ... read more ...
Sun 18th December 2011
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Facebook awarded FacebookLive.com domain in dispute - Company wins dispute over FacebookLive.com domain name A National Arbitration Forum panelist has awarded Facebook the domain name FacebookLive.com. The domain name was originally registered in 2006 but its whois record was protected by a proxy service. The whois proxy was lifted in 2009, revealing Domainstand.com LLC as the owner. After the dispute was filed the registrant’s name was changed to CT nice Homes LLC. The domain owner didn’t respond to Facebook’s ... read more ...
Sat 17th December 2011
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FTC asks ICANN to run commander new TLD launch - FTC says adding just 22 new TLDs would be “aggressive”. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has sent a letter (pdf) to ICANN asking it to significantly curtail its plans for new top level domain names. The FTC believes the mass introduction of new top level domains will lead to more fraud on the internet including phishing and malware distribution. It is asking ICANN to run a pilot program of new TLDs. How small of a pilot? We strongly believe that ICANN should ... read more ...
Fri 16th December 2011
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Tucows resumes batch buybacks, adult to 12.2% of superb shares - Company offers to buy up to 6.5 million shares of its stock. Tucows, which owns the world’s third largest domain name registrar, announced a Dutch auction tender offer to repurchase up to 6,500,000 shares of its common stock. That’s up to 12.2% of Tucows’ outstanding shares. The company has frequently bought back shares in its company as it feels it is the best use of cash right now. Tucows CEO Elliot Noss explained, “We continue to believe that the repurchase ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Manwin reminds affiliates not to register the trademarks in .xxx - Hi All Webmasters, It is very important that you read and understand the below change. If there are any questions, do not hesitate to contact your affiliate manager Change to Section 9 of the Affiliate terms and conditions 9) Affiliate acknowledges and agrees that they shall not be entitled to a commission or referral fee for any and all referrals, which are in breach/violation of the terms of this agreement. Affiliate also acknowledges and agrees they shall not be entitled to a commission or ... read more ...
 
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Done deal: KKR, Silver Lake & TCV now partial owners of Go Daddy - Largest domain name registrar gets big financial backing. GoDaddy is now (partly) private-equity owned. The company finally closed on its investment from KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures today. Bob Parsons remains the single largest shareholder, which should assuage concerns of what can happen when a company is owned by investors only interested in the bottom line. With the closing Parsons is no longer CEO. He is now Executive Chairman Founder. ... read more ...
Thu 15th December 2011
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Google doesn’t consider YouTube.ae is a tube trade marketplace - Company files complaint against site that says it’s for “tube trading”. Google has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization in an attempt to get the domain name YouTube.ae. .Ae is the country code for United Arab Emirates. YouTube.ae is either a legitimate business or a clever scheme to hide the true intentions of the domain’s owner. The site says YouTube (they capitalize it YOUTUBe) is the “leading portal of tube trading”. A copyright ... read more ...
 
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191 domain .co auction ends today - No reserve auction attracting lots of bidding attention. An auction of nearly 200 keyword .co domain names ends today at Sedo. With just two hours to go over 60% of the domain names in the no reserve auction already have bids. 31 bids have been place for Safe.co, driving the price up to $2,800. Finder.co and Wear.co are each at $1,050. The Spanish language Horoscopo.co, which comes with a web site, has been bid up to EUR 1,050. Some of my favorites in the auction ... read more ...
 
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Even CSC doesn’t make whois accuracy - Two months later Cocomo.com still has bogus whois information. You would think that a brand management intellectual property company would enforce whois accuracy on its customers. But apparently not. Two months ago I wrote about the sale of Cocomo.com for $33,000. The domain name had just been transferred to CSC (Corporation Service Company) with obviously bogus whois information: I submitted a whois inaccuracy report to ICANN. I assumed the registrant information ... read more ...
Wed 14th December 2011
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Top 20 web sites now protected in .xxx - Top 20 web sites won’t be “sexsquatted”. The top 20 most visited web sites (according to Quantcast) are now “safe” from cybersquatting/sexsquatting in the new .xxx domain name. Earlier this week I ran an analysis and found that two of the top 20 — HuffingtonPost.xxx and WordPress.xxx — had been registered by people other than those companies. Later that same day I ran the Huffington Post story the domain name HuffingtonPost.xxx was transferred to corporate ... read more ...
 
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Walden messes adult Apple domain instance in ICANN hearing - Chairman of committee calls out iPad.com as an example of someone buying a domain just to sell it to a big brand. Want to know how to lose credibility in a hurry? Take a look at the statement of Greg Walden Chairman, Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Hearing, for today’s hearing about new top level domains. The representative from Oregon uses Apple as his example for the cost companies incur protecting their brands on the web. Here’s the choice quote: To ... read more ...
 
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Better Business Bureau thinks it should have initial dibs on BBB.xxx - Group’s IP attorney miffed that it couldn’t get bbb.xxx under ICM Registry sunrise process. In planned testimony for today’s hearing about new TLDs in the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology on new TLDs, Council of Better Business Bureaus IP attorney Anjali Hansen said her group should have had first dibs on the domain name BBB: Even more astounding was the fact that ICM Registry refused to accept CBBB’s registration of its most famous trademark ... read more ...
 
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James Brown estate fights for JamesBrown.com - Late singer’s estate files complaint over domain name JamesBrown.com. The estate of the late “Godfather of Soul” James Brown has filed an arbitration case with National Arbitration Forum over the domain name JamesBrown.com. The domain name is registered to Lac Management, Inc., which manages “RJ The James Brown Band”, the group that performed with Brown until his death in 2006. When contacted for comment about the case, Lac Management said it was contacted ... read more ...
 
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Macy’s sues association perplexing to revive the bequest brands - Company tries to revive old brands such as Bullock’s and The Broadway. File this one under “did you think to ask a lawyer about this first?” Department store company Macy’s has filed a federal lawsuit (pdf) against a company that’s trying to bring back Macy’s legacy brands. The company, Strategic Marks, LLC, has filed trademark applications for some of Macy’s brands such as May Company and Robinson’s, and set up shop on the web at RetroDepartmentStores.com. According ... read more ...
 
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Major League Baseball and Current TV buy domain names - A look at end user domain name sales from the past week. My list of end user domain purchases for the week is a little bit shorter than usual, but contains big names including Major League Baseball. All sales were at Afternic unless otherwise noted. Major League Baseball bought Justice4U.com for $3,000. MLB.com Executive Correspondent Richard Justice writes a blog at Justice4U.mlb.com. Al Gore’s Current TV bought PoliticallyDirect.com for $4,488. The network has ... read more ...
Tue 13th December 2011
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GoDaddy rocks on with Kid Rock (video) - GoDaddy party transforms Chase Field into amusement park. Every year Go Daddy spends millions of dollars on a holiday party for its employees at Chase Field in Phoenix. This year it expanded with a road show in Iowa and Colorado, but the big show in the desert was as big as ever. The company gave over $1 million in cash prizes to its employees and entertained them with performances by Kid Rock, Dierks Bentley and Trace Adkins. The pictures and video of the event ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Democrats register Bet10k.com domain name - Democrats register two domain names that could be used to attack Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney’s attempt to bet Rick Perry $10,000 during a televised debate is the latest (non-issue) making waves in the Republican primaries. His opponents are seizing the opportunity. It appears the Democratic National Committee registered the domain names Bet10k.com and Bet10k.org yesterday at GoDaddy. Both of the domains names are protected with a whois privacy service but the nameservers ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The dual biggest misconceptions about .xxx domain names - News stories propagate fear over .xxx. I’ve watched with amusement over the past week as the press has written story after story about defensive .xxx domain name registrations. Almost every article I’ve read suggests two things about .xxx that I think are flat out wrong. 1. ICANN wanted .xxx. I think it’s safe to say that ICANN didn’t want .xxx to become reality. Remember how it voted against it (after voting for it)? Remember how it spent money fighting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Sorry domainers, though Microsoft’s investigate has zero to do with domains - Study is about brand loyalty to certain web sites, not the quality of a domain name. A study by Microsoft over “domain bias” in searches is making the rounds today. Unfortunately I think domainers are misinterpreting what it says. I’m even going to disagree with Michael Berkens on the importance of this one. The study is titled “Domain Bias in Web Search” and it shows that people are more likely to click on listings associated with certain domain names. Score ... read more ...
Mon 12th December 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
With 1 month to go, new TLD module still full of uncertainties - New TLD investors face a big challenge: uncertainty. The application window for new top level domain names opens one month from today. It’s kind of funny to think about it. The internet community has been working on new TLDs for so many years, and now the hard work is about to begin. Yet even after all these years there’s still a lot of uncertainty. With just one month to go… 1. We still don’t know the details of a newly approved program to reduce the application ... read more ...
 
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Huffington Post Gets Sexsquatted - California man registers HuffingtonPost.xxx. [Update 5 PM CST 12/12/11: That was quick. AOL is now the owner of the domain. Now the only one of the top 20 web sites on the web that may be sexsquatted is WordPress.xxx.] .XXX domain names opened up for registration last week, but it looks like one big brand may have missed the message. HuffingtonPost.xxx was registered by a California man shortly after the registry opened for business. I can’t find anything that ... read more ...
 
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Company manages to get .secure trademark - Company going after .bank and .secure domain names gets a (weak) trademark. A company hoping to offer .bank and .secure domain names has managed to get a trademark for .secure from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office — albeit on the supplement register. How did it do this, since the USPTO won’t grant trademarks on top level domains? First, Asif LLC didn’t tell the USPTO the trademark was for a top level domain name. Instead, it says it’s for “Domain name ... read more ...
 
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Want to be ICANN’s subsequent CEO? - Non-profit publishes profile of desired CEO. Want to be the CEO of an organization launching a highly controversial expansion of the internet namespace and seeing its budget double or triple your first year on the job? ICANN has a job for you. Today ICANN announced it has selected search firm Odgers Berndtson of Brussels to help it find a new CEO to replace Rod Beckstrom. ICANN has used the same firm previously. It also published a candidate profile (pdf). Among the ... read more ...
Fri 9th December 2011
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8 probable headlines for yesterday’s New TLD hearing - How do you describe an uneventful congressional hearing? Yesterday the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing about the introduction of new top level domains. The session, lightly attended by senators, was a bit bland. But here are 8 possible headlines I could think of after watching yesterday. Cybersquatters: they’re like pedophiles Disney sues Congress over use of Mickey Mouse image in congressional hearing New TLD hearing confused with whois policy discussion ICANN ... read more ...
 
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Amazon.com buys SmartIsBeautiful.com — a new brand? - What does company plan to do with domain? Is being smart beautiful? And if so, are you smart enough to figure out why Amazon.com just bought SmartIsBeautiful.com? The domain name was owned by BuyDomains until July 21, 2011, according to historical whois records. Richard Law Group of Dallas, Texas bought the domain name. Afternic didn’t report the sale, and that’s probably because it was for under $1,000. It looks like the domain name was listed with a “buy now” ... read more ...