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 6th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Facebook Recovers 14 Typo Domains That Were in Lawsuit - Defendants hand domain names over to Facebook. Facebook has recovered 14 Facebook.com domain name typos that were named in its massive cybersquatting lawsuit filed in July. The domain names were most recently using the PrivacyProtect.org whois masking service. The names transferred to Facebook include: acebook.com facdbook.com facdebook.com facebokok.com facebooc.com faceboock.com faceboof.com facebooi.com facebool.com faceboook.com faceboow.com facfacebook.com facfebook.com wwwfacebok.com These ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XXX Is Going to Make a Whole Lot of Money - Latest six figure sale is a sign of things to come. ICM Registry’s sale of gay.xxx for $500,000 is simply staggering. If there was any doubt before, the company is clearly going to make a mint. This also shows that second level domains in relevant new top level domain names will sell for a lot more than the same second level in a generic TLD (save for .com and and perhaps .net and .org). ICM says it has now sold nine premium .xxx domain names for $100,000 or more. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Matt Cutts: .Co Not Just for Colombia - Matt Cutts reconfirms that .co doesn’t have to be targeted to Colombia. Despite Google clearly stating that you can opt to have your .co domain treated not just as a Colombia targeted domain, people have still spread the false notion that this isn’t the case. Matt Cutts has posted a video in his popular video series stating that, indeed, you can target your .co web site to a different location from inside your Google Webmaster account. I detailed how this works ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Auschwitz Museum Loses Case for Domain Name - Museum can’t have Auschwitz.org. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, a memorial and museum including the site of former German concentration camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, has failed to get the domain name Auschwitz.org through an arbitration proceeding. The museum filed the case with National Arbitration Forum. The owner owner of the domain name argued that Auschwitz is a historical word and doesn’t belong to the museum. Panelist M. Kelly Tillery determined ... read more ...
Wed 5th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AusRegistry Rebrands, Sets Up Registry Infrastructure in a U.S. - Company drops the Australia reference in name and offers two locations for registry services. Are U.S. companies more comfortable with a registry services provider in their home country? It appears so. AusRegistry International has changed its name to ARI Registry Services and is setting up registry infrastructure for its new TLD offerings in the U.S. in addition to Australia. The AusRegistry name clearly screamed “Australia”. A press release about the change ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Domain Registrar Accreditation Rules Start Today - New application terms and conditions go into effect. Becoming an ICANN accredited domain name registrar got a little bit tougher starting today. ICANN has just imposed “enhanced” terms and conditions for registrar accreditation applications. Changes include: – Stronger terms governing the accuracy of the information provided by the applicant and an ongoing obligation to maintain accurate information during the course of the application process. – Granting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
14 End User Domain Name Sales from a Past Week - Here are 14 domain names purchased by end users via Afternic over the past week. Harvest Ministries bought HarvestAmerica.com for $4,588. The ministry, led by Greg Laurie, owns Harvest.org Recruiter Harry Joiner, who I’ve written about many times, bought eTailJobs.com for $3,675. Travel Planners International, Inc. was back again to buy VacationExperts.com for a solid $15,000. AmeriClerkships Medical Society, which helps place medical residency applicants, bought ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Registration Tipped Off GrouponGoods.com - Groupon Goods launch foreshadowed by domain registration. In August I wrote about Groupon’s registration of GrouponGoods.com. At the time I asked if it was for a merchandise site or charity. Today I got my first Groupon Goods email. According to the company: Groupon Goods features really good deals on great products. To get airspace on Groupon Goods, a product has to be cool enough to share and innovative enough to inspire. It also must be made of reliably bonded ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameMedia Pulls Listings from Sedo - Company removes listings from Sedo but it may be only temporary. Notice anything missing from Sedo lately? NameMedia, which operates BuyDomains and Afternic, has yanked all of its domains from Sedo. The company previously listed its owned and operated domain names on Sedo’s marketplace. Sedo changed its commission rate and terms and conditions a few months ago, although Sedo says this wasn’t the reason for the removal. Sedo Marketing Team Manager Heather DelCarpini ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Amazon Welcomes Back California Affiliates - Affiliates and rejoin program after governor repeals law. Remember when Amazon fired all of its California “associates” because the state said affiliates created a nexus in the state and was going to force them to start collecting sale tax? California governor Jerry Brown has repealed the affiliate tax law and Amazon is inviting affiliates to rejoin the program. Here’s an email Amazon.com just sent to former affiliates: Hello, As you may have heard, California ... read more ...
Tue 4th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Monte Cahn Calls Oversee’s Motion to Dismiss “Boilerplate” - Judge again to decide on motion to dismiss some of Cahn’s claims against his former employer. Monte Cahn has responded (pdf) to Oversee.net’s Motion to Dismiss certain claims in his case against his former employer. Cahn’s lawyers write: “As this is Oversee’s second Motion to Dismiss, Oversee has defaulted to boilerplate, insubstantial objections to Cahn’s claims.” The judge struck many of Cahn’s claims in Oversee.net’s previous motion to dismiss. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
eBay and PayPal Relaunch X.com - Single letter domain name finally put to good use. It’s a shame to see a single letter .com domain name languish. So it’s good news that PayPal is finally putting its rare single letter domain name X.com back to use. The company, along with parent eBay, launched x.commerce at the domain name last month. The goal is to get developers to create applications for people to sell online. x.com is one of only three single letter .com domain names registered. The others ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Frank Michlick Joins Sedo - Michlick joins domain name marketplace. I caught word earlier this week that domain name industry veteran Frank Michlick had joined Sedo. I emailed him yesterday for the story and today Sedo released a press release about it. Michlick will be working with the SedoMLS team at Sedo. SedoMLS is its domain sale syndication platform. He has been in the domain industry for years, including a stint of 5+ years at Tucows. He is also the main contributor to Domain Name News. He ... read more ...
Mon 3rd October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Domain Name Wire News Stories of September - A look at September in the domain name industry. The baseball playoffs are here, the temperature is cooling down, and the domain name industry is gearing up for an exciting fall. Here’s a look back at the top stories on Domain Name Wire over the past month, ranked by page views. 1. Ready to Scream? After 14 Years, Guy Loses Screams.com in UDRP – owner of haunted house loses case for his Screams.com domain name, but he’s suing to avoid the transfer. 2. Here’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Email Marketing Company Emma Sues Microstrategy, Owner of Emma.com - Emma, Inc. pays for not owning Emma.com. A heavyweight battle is about to ensue over the name “Emma”. Email marketing company Emma, Inc., which operates its main web site at MyEmma.com, has sued publicly traded MicroStrategy for trademark infringement (pdf). MicroStrategy has owned the domain name Emma.com since the 1990s but didn’t use it until recently. The company is no small fish; it has a market cap of $1.22 billion. At issue is MicroStrategy’s recent ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Do You Think of a TRAFFIC Auction Lineup? - What do you think of the names and reserves in this auction? This year’s (only) TRAFFIC conference takes place in just a couple weeks in Fort Lauderdale. It will include the first auction run exclusively by TRAFFIC without an outside domain sales company. The list of domains is still fluid, but it seems that Rick Schwartz is delivering on his word to keep reserves relatively low. That doesn’t mean the domains will sell, though. Ultimately an auction is pretty ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
British Airways, Financial Times, and Virgin Sidestep .co.uk Auctions - Some companies get short domains through sunrise instead of auctions. While some businesses paid hefty sums to win auctions for one and two character .uk domains recently — £3m in total — a few businesses took a cheaper route. British Airways, Financial Times, and Virgin Enterprises each got their short domain names through a trademark sunrise period. The airline picked up ba.co.uk and the financial pub grabbed ft.co.uk. Virgin scored a major coup by grabbing ... read more ...
Fri 30th September 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google to Take on Woopra and ChartBeat - Google Analytics goes real-time. Web analytics companies already know they need to quickly adapt to survive. Remember when Google acquired Urchin and then offered its suite for free as Google Analytics? Yeah, that shook things up. Today Google announced real-time functionality in Google Analytics. This is a blow to two popular real time services: Woopra and ChartBeat. I’ve tried both paid services and personally like Woopra better. Real time analytics is important ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Don’t Mess With Texas’ Domain Names - Texas Department of Transportation wins domain name dispute over DontMessWithTexas.com. The Texas Department of Transportation has a message for domain name owners: Don’t Mess with Texas. The organization just won a National Arbitration Forum case over the domain name DontMessWithTexas.com. The owner of the domain name didn’t respond to the dispute. Barring any late legal action by the owner, the domain will be transferred to the state within 10 days. Don’t ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Pre-Paid Legal Has Rebranding Problem with Domain Name - Controversial legal services company is rebranding but doesn’t have the domain name. Pre-Paid Legal Services is changing its name to LegalShield, but it has a big problem: it doesn’t own LegalShield.com. Just a short time after filing an intent to use trademark application for “LegalShield” the company filed a UDRP complaint for LegalShield.com. The respondent, represented by Ari Goldberger of Esqwire.com, won the case. What’s interesting to me is that Pre-Paid ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company Sues Facebook Over New Timeline Feature, Says it Hijacked Its Username - Company claims trademark infringement and that Facebook hijacked its username. The Chicago company that owns Timelines.com and a federally registered trademark for “Timelines” has filed a trademark infringement suit (pdf) against Facebook over its new “Timeline” feature. According to the suit: Facebook has announced its intention to use and, indeed has already begun to re-direct Internet traffic, using Timelines’ federally registered “TIMELINES” ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Coming Soon: The .XXX Speedboat - ICM Registry to sponsor world champion powerboat racer Mike Seebold. ICM Registry, the company behind the new .xxx top level domain name, is entering world class powerboat racing with world champion driver Mike Seebold to compete at this year’s Offshore World Championships in Key West, Florida. We’ve already seen domain name company’s names plastered on the side of Nascar and F-1 race cars (Go Daddy), now we’ll get to see one on a powerboat. The race boat ... read more ...
Thu 29th September 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Automated Domain Selling Fail - Make sure your system works so you don’t embarrass yourself. If you’re going to use an automated or semi-automated system to reach out to potential buyers of your domain names, please make sure the system works. I’ve received several off base emails “I see you own this domain, would you be interested in also owning this (unrelated) domain? This one today takes the cake: Hello, I would like to know if you are interested in purchasing the domain name famouscharities.com. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Acorn.TV Battle Moves to a Courts - Parties to litigate over Acorn.tv ownership. Earlier this month I wrote about a very poor UDRP decision for Acorn.tv. The registrant lost the case. I later talked to the registrant and he informed me he was moving forward with a lawsuit against complainant Acorn Media Group. This would explain why Acorn Media Group is now suing to try to get the domain name since the UDRP transfer was halted. Right off the bat there seems to be a major problem with Acorn Media Group’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
A Domain Name Vs. The Web Underclass - Using a web service instead of managing your own domain name opens you to risk. I just finished reading Adrian Short’s editorial about Facebook’s Open Graph and I think domainers will find it interesting. It’s a long and well argued editorial and I certainly don’t want to try summarizing it. But from a domain name perspective, Short argues the difference between a domain name and social networks. When you host your content and business on a domain name you ... read more ...