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 22nd November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy to offer $5.00 .com domain names on Black Friday - Company repeats $5.00 offer starting this Friday. Domain Name Registrar GoDaddy.com will be offering $5.00 .com domain names starting on Black Friday and running through CyberMonday (the following Monday). The company ran a similar promotion last year. The deal appears to be an affiliate only offer, so I’m going to have to use an affiliate link to send you to it. The link will not give you the $5.00 price until Friday. The price does not include ICANN’s 18 cent ... read more ...
Mon 21st November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SAP Continues to Struggle with UDRP - Company has lost 5 of last 15 decided cases. Software giant SAP continues to struggle with its efforts to corral domain names through the UDRP Process. Although it has won two thirds of its cases, as far as big complainants go SAP may as well have a failing record. Sure, it wins most of the UDRP cases it files. But it loses more than most complainants. The latest loss: SAPApps.com. What makes this case (and some of the other losses) interesting is that the respondent ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kudos to this UDRP panelist for giving it thought - Initially, this seemed to this Panel to be a simple and straightforward case of abusive domain name registration, the Respondent having registered the Domain Name well after the registration of the Trademarks, redirecting it to its own website under a different domain name, where it sells competing products and not having responded to letters of summons from Complainant, nor having filed a response and apparently having another, similar domain name transferred to a third party after receiving a letter ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Jelly Belly and Original Gourmet Foods not being so sweet - Companies head to court over “original gourmet” name. This trademark dispute has little to do with domain names but does involve my favorite candy company, Jelly Belly. Original Gourmet Food Company, Inc., has filed a dispute (pdf) in U.S. District Court for declaratory judgment over the “original gourmet” name. The food fight started when Original Gourmet tried to extend the use of its “Original Gourmet” name to cookies with a trademark filing. Jelly ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Affiliate selling propels expansion during Sedo - Affiliate marketing grows while domain business stagnates. Sedo Holding, parent company of domain name marketplace and parking company Sedo, reported growth in Q3 compared to the same quarter in 2011. The growth was driven by the company’s affilinet affiliate marketing business. Q3 sales were EUR 29.1M compared to EUR 27.3M in the same quarter last year. For the first nine months of the year sales in the affiliate marketing division increased 20.7% compared to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Televangelist Kenneth Copeland loses quarrel opposite critique site - Arbitration panel determines KennethCopelandBlog.com can remain with current owner. Televangelist Kenneth Copeland has lost a domain name dispute with KennethCopelandBlog.com, a criticism site. Kenneth Copeland is a televangelist who preaches the so-called prosperity gospel. The message is that the more money people give to the church, the more they’ll get out of God. (A beautiful business model if you ask me.) The critical site is maintained Rich Vermillion, who ... read more ...
Thu 17th November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
9 Domains Hit Reserve with 4 Hours to Go in Moniker Auction - Moniker’s Year End Auction ends today. At least nine domain names will sell in Moniker’s Year End Auction, which ends at 12:15 PM PST today. Nine domains have hit their reserve, ranging from MosquitoWipes.com at $300 up to PaternityTest.com at $21,500. The latter has six bidders. A number of other domains are active and close to hitting reserves. QX.com is at $82,500 and has a reserve of up to $100,000. APW.com is up to $12,999 with a reserve range of $10,000-$25000. Altogether ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oversee.net: We Don’t Owe Monte Cahn Anything for $13M Management Incentive Plan - Oversee.net requests summary judgment on claim it owes Moniker founder money under incentive plan. It’s been a busy week full of filings in the case of Monte Cahn v. Oversee.net. Monte is suing his former employer on a number of counts, including alleging that he’s owed money under a $13 million Management Incentive Plan (MIP). The most notable filing is Oversee.net’s request yesterday for summary judgment on Monte’s claim of breach of contract under the $13 ... read more ...
Wed 16th November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Why we No Longer Include Affiliate Links on Domain Name Wire - No more affiliate links. I used to include affiliate links on Domain Name Wire, but I took them off a few weeks ago. Here’s why: 1. Everyone has conflicts of interest. But the affiliate links made it easy for people to question if I was writing about a particular auction or product because I wanted to make money off of it. So, problem solved. (Of course I still accept paid advertising. But with a wait list, I don’t have a need to promote companies on the blog ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Releases Updated IDNX with Other TLDs - Domain price index now includes data for ten top level domain names. Today Sedo and its research partner (now an employee) released an updated version of the IDNX, a price index for domain names. Included in the latest refresh are sub-indices for 10 different top level domain names. Top level domain options now include .com, .net, .org, .biz., .info, .mobi, .eu, .de, .co.uk, and .es. With the TLD analysis, Sedo draws two key conclusions that are relevant to companies ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CRIDO Says Battle Against New TLDs Won’t End Jan 12 - Lawyer says it will battle on even after application window opens. Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight (CRIDO), a new group formed to try to stall or can ICANN’s new top level domain name program, says it has more than two months to make a difference. The application window for new top level domains opens January 12. But Doug Wood, Association of National Advertisers counsel, told World Trademark Review that it plans to battle the program even after ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
“New TLD” Becomes an Expensive Keyword on Google - Companies bid each other up for top spots on Google Adwords. Companies offering new top level domain name services are getting into a pay-per-click bidding war on Google. According to Google Adwords’ keyword tool, the average CPC for “new top level domain” is $7.41 and “new tld” is $4.91. Of course the keyword tool is notoriously inaccurate when it comes to the what people are actually paying because it depends on your landing page, visitor location, etc. But ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Manwin’s Attack on .XXX is Really an Attack on New TLDs - Arguments and antitrust lawsuit could be made against many top level domain names. Manwin Licensing, the company behind YouPorn, has sued .xxx registry ICM Registry for violating the Sherman Act (i.e. monopoly). If you read the complaint against ICM you could substitute other top level domains for .xxx and the suit would still make sense. Manwin says .xxx wasn’t put out to competitive bid, has no price caps, and ICM Registry gets presumptive renewal. It also complains ... read more ...
Tue 15th November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
60 Days To Renew Your Domains Before Price Hikes - .Com prices jump 7% in January. Time is running out if you want to save money (or not spend more) on your .com and .net domain name renewals. VeriSign’s price hikes on its wholesale cost for the domains goes into effect January 15. The wholesale cost from VeriSign for .com domain names will increase from $7.34 to $7.85 and the registry fee for .net domain names will increase from $4.65 to $5.11. That doesn’t include ICANN’s 18 cent tax, which bumps the .com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Is Proactiv Being Proactive About a Recall? - Handful of domain name registrations point to defensive registrations for “Proactiv Recall”. [Update: yes, there’s a recall.] Proactiv — the acne control company that apparently keeps Justin Beiber’s skin clear — may be making some “proactive” domain name acquisitions. Yesterday a client of brand protection company MarkMonitor registered a number of domain names related to “Proactiv Recall”, including ProactivRecall.com, proactivrecall.org, proactivrecall.info, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex Shares Down 40% In 3 Months - Marchex gets smacked around in the stock market. The stock market isn’t showing any love to Marchex, one of the world’s largest holders of domain names. Shares closed today at just $6.38, down nearly 40% from their $10.57 opening price on August 15. This is despite the company topping both earnings and revenue estimates for the third quarter in earnings released November 2. The company is focusing heavily on its pay-per-call services. Here’s how some other ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Domains American Express and Others Bought this Week - AMEX and The Georgia Department of Agriculture buy domain names. Here’s a look at end user domain purchases from Afternic over the past week. Switzerland’s Deesse AG, which operates web sites at Deesse.de and Deesse.com, bought Deesse.net for $1,688. The Broadway Consortium, which produces and invests in a variety of theater projects, bought BroadwayRecords.com for $1,200. Sevier County Electric System bought SCES.net, its acronym, for $1,316. Salt River Materials ... read more ...
Mon 14th November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Auctions Now Autotransferring and Paying in 5 Days - Easier transfers and faster payments. I sold the domain name EnglishDesk.com on Go Daddy a week ago, and have benefited first hand from changes made to GoDaddy Auctions. Domain Name News first wrote about the changes a few weeks ago. For a domain name sold through GoDaddy Auctions that is also registered at GoDaddy, the domain is transferred and payment processed within five days. I listed the domain with Go Daddy Premium Listings. This let’s people buy a domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Why CRIDO Has No Cred - Lead organization knew about new TLDs but did nothing about it. Last week a large group formed to pressure the U.S. government for help in its opposition to new top level domain names. Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight (CRIDO) includes 87 associations and businesses, including the recently outspoken Association of National Advertisers (ANA). Is the group too late to the table? Michael Berkens says they are because there were plenty of opportunities ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The Real o.co Lesson - Branding a new domain name — and especially a new top level domain — takes a long time. [Update: The .co registry has posted an interview with Overstock regarding what it is doing.] News that Overstock.com, err, o.co, is slowing down its efforts to rebrand to o.co, didn’t come as a big surprise to me. Too drastic. Too fast. That’s how I’d describe the company’s move from Overstock.com to o.co. And there’s a lesson for .brand new top level domain applicants. Last ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Retail CPCs Up, Finance Clicks Cost Less - How are your parking pages doing? If you’ve noticed your finance parked domains are hitting headwinds lately, you won’t be surprised by new data released today by Efficient Frontier. Efficient Frontier, which manages some of the biggest pay-per-click spending in the industry, is reporting a sharp increase in the amount advertisers are paying for clicks in the retail industry. Finance has declined. The CPC for retail was 56 cents in October, up from just 46 cents ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Enters a Post-Playboy Era - Next DOMAINfest Global conference just a few months away. For three years DOMAINfest has been defined by a single event: its party at the Playboy Mansion. Don’t get me wrong. The conferences were great and packed with excellent sessions. But when people talked about the conference it inevitably came back to that one party. The 2012 conference will be different. The final party will be at a different (and less controversial) venue, The House of Blues. I suspect ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
This is a 5,000th Post on Domain Wire - Thanks for helping Domain Name Wire reach another milestone. Domain Name Wire has hit a milestone: this is the 5,000th post. It seems like just yesterday that I started this blog. But it has been nearly 7 years of exciting research, sleuthing, and writing. The domain industry has seen its ups and downs during this period, but I believe it is stronger than ever. The trajectory is pointing upward, and I look forward to covering the good and the bad as it moves forward. Of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainer Colin Pape Files Complaint with FTC Over Google - Claims Google unfairly promoted its own web properties. Someone close do the domain name industry is getting lots of press today. ShopCity, led by Colin Pape, filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on November 11. Pape has been in the domain industry for a while and even keynoted the Epik conference last year. Bloomberg BusinessWeek is covering the story. ShopCity says that Google unfairly used its control of search results to damage ShopCity.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Citrix Assigns $18 Million Value to Cloud.com Domain Name - Company puts domain name on the books at a huge sum. How much is the cloud.com domain name worth? According to Citrix’s accountants, it’s $18 million. The company acquired Cloud.com (the business) for $200 million plus earlier this year. George Kirikos just noticed that the company is amortizing the domain itself with a value of $18 million. Now this is just an accounting number, so I’m not sure the domain was worth that much when it wasn’t attached to a business. ... read more ...