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 13th September 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WTF? Acorn.tv mislaid in UDRP. - Hold on tight to your generic .tv domains! Sometimes I read UDRP decisions and just start shaking my head. That’s the case with Acorn.tv. Keep in mind that UDRP was created for clear cut cases of cybersquatting. Acorn.tv is not a clear cut case of cybersquatting and should have remained with the owner. Acorn Media Group, Inc, which filed the complaint, makes home video products. That apparently means that anything with “acorn” and the .tv extension belongs to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.XXX Sunrise Registrations “Comfortably Exceeded” Expectations - A long way to go but numbers already look strong for .xxx sunrise registrations. The .xxx sunrise registration period is less than a week old, but ICM Registry CEO Stuart Lawley told Domain Name Wire “I think it is safe to say that we have ‘comfortably exceeded’ our internal estimates” via email today. Lawley goes on to write: The response to the unprecedented media coverage last week was immediate and strong and we are surprised at the level of applications ... read more ...
Mon 12th September 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Does Rugby Deserve WorldCup2011.com? - Is it fair to give this domain name to a Rugby organization despite its use? [Update: Rugby lost the cast for the reasons I suggested here.] Rugby World Cup Limited has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization to get the domain name WorldCup2011.com. Of course there are a lot of “World Cup” tournaments going on this year. There was the FIFA Women’s World Cup, ICC Cricket World Cup, and even the Federation of International Touch World ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dallas Mavericks Star Dirk Nowitzki Wins Dispute Over Domain Name - Dirk Nowitzki wins case against creator of icon of his likeness. Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki has won a dispute against a company that used DirkSwish.com to sell memorabilia of his likeness. Dallas based Happy Bulldawg Entertainment, which says it created the “Legendary Icon” of Dirk Nowitzki (seen here on a Sports Illustrated cover), registered DirkSwish.com on May 28, 2011. The company says it registered it to create a fan site in honor of Nowitzki. Yet ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Trademark Holders Go to 93-1 in .Co Disputes - .Co domain name disputes almost always found in favor of complainant. Filers of UDRP cases against .co domain names are now 93-1 at World Intellectual Property Organization. These cases have all been filed since .co was relaunched last year. I’ve counted “terminated” cases as wins for the complainant since an amicable transfer is the typical reason for a case to be terminated. This doesn’t include numbers for National Arbitration Forum cases since that group ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
ICANN’s Enron-esque Math Shows a Loss on New TLDs - Numbers don’t make a lot of sense to me. ICANN has released a projected cash flow and profit and loss statement from the new top level domain name program. It has me scratching my head. The non-profit presents two sets of numbers. First is an overall program cashflow statement. The program considers only 500 applications (which is near the low end of what most people are estimating). It also doesn’t show any revenue from auctions. To be fair, estimating auction ... read more ...
Sun 11th September 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
10 Years Later - This isn’t a blog post about where I was and all of that stuff. We all have those stories. This is just another reminder to think about what’s important in life. After 9/11, people decided to spend more time with family and reconnecting with old friends. They went out of there way to help people, even complete strangers. This has worn off over the past decade. I was reminded of this when the Dow fell 300 points on Friday. It was painful to watch. But did it really ... read more ...
Sat 10th September 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Another TLD Frontrunner Joins Game with .Hawaii, .Fish, and More - What Box? Holdings files four trademark applications for top level domains. I’ve written numerous times about people applying for trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for new top level domain names. Here’s the latest entrant into the frontrunning game: Beverly Hills company What Box? Holdings, LLC. The company just filed applications for .Hawaii, .Foundation, .Fish, and .Charter. Of course the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office won’t grant a trademark ... read more ...
Fri 9th September 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Warner Bros Registers Domains for Upcoming Beetlejuice Sequel - Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! I was just ten years old when Beetlejuice came to theaters. I remember being horrified watching the dark comedy. Now a couple decades later Warner Bros plans to produce Beetlejuice 2. News of the sequel just broke this week, but Warner Bros has snapped up at least nine domain names for it. Most importantly it got the domain name beetlejuice2.com. It also registered beetlejuice-2.com, beetlejuice-movie.com, beetlejuice2movie.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Garry Chernoff Beats AutoTrader in Domain Dispute - AutoTrader.com fails to win AutoTrade.com. Long time domain name investor Garry Chernoff has successfully defended a case brought against his AutoTrade.com domain name by AutoTrader. The case was defended by John Berryhill. Chernoff registered the domain name in 1998 based on the generic term “auto trade”. This was prior to AutoTrader publishing its web sit; it was a print publication at the time. The majority including panelist Alfred Meijboom and The Hon Neil ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Is 3-D Really Dead? - 3-D is certainly not a sure thing. I originally read with amusement Michael Berkens’ 2010 article about 3-D domain names: I sure blew this one. But at least I’m not alone. The next big thing is going to be 3D. Berkens bemoaned the fact that he missed the boat on registering 3D related domain names. I chuckled a bit at this because I think this is probably the third time in the past 15 years that entertainment executives said 3D was going to be the next big thing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Wins Another Surname UDRP - Another win but panel makes an error. Tucows has successfully defended another one of the domains in the surname portfolio it acquired in 2006. Marden Group B.V. filed the case over the domain name Marden.com. According to the complaint, Marden wasn’t even founded until 2008 (or at least didn’t file for a trademark until then), some 12 years after Marden.com was registered. Among Marden’s somewhat incredible claims, as written in the panel decision: As surnames ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Doppelganger Domains. Oh, My. - Research sheds light on email security from domain name typos. A new research report about typosquatting is making waves on mainstream web sites today. The report covers what researchers at “Information Security Think Tank” Godai Group call Doppelganger Domains. I’ve never heard the term doppelganger applied to domain names before, but the group uses the term to label domain names that are missing a dot. For example, a doppelganger of us.ibm.com would be usibm.com. The ... read more ...
Thu 8th September 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Vampires Fight Over Upcoming Twilight: Breaking Dawn Movie Domain - Domain names an issue for upcoming movie release. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 is coming to theaters this November. But before vampires duke it out on screen, a fight has already broken out over the film’s domain name: the creators have filed a complaint against the owner of BreakingDawnTheMovie.com in an effort to get the domain name. The complaint was filed with National Arbitration Forum. Movie studios often add “themovie” to the end of titles ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameMedia Sends “School Webmasters” Back to School - Arizona company loses domain name dispute over SchoolWebmaster.com. NameMedia, which runs domain name marketplaces Afternic and BuyDomains, has taught the owner of SchoolWebmasters.com a lesson. ScribeWrite, LLC operates as School Webmasters (schoolwebmasters.com), which provides web site services to schools and teachers. It filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum in July, asking for it to award the domain name SchoolWebmaster.com (singular) to it. NameMedia ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registrar Renewal Notices: Damned if we Do, Damned if we Don’t - Guy complains about receiving renewal notices after his domain expires. I just read a post on ZDNet by Scott Raymond that lambasted GoDaddy.com for a number of its practices. The article starts out complaining about how GoDaddy continued to send him renewal notices for his domain even after it expired: Recently I had deliberately allowed a domain to expire, since I no longer used it and it wasn’t worth maintaining for sentimental reasons. However, GoDaddy has a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Monte Cahn Updates Lawsuit Against Oversee.net with New Details - Cahn claims company deliberately shifted Moniker’s revenue to other Oversee.net entities. Monte Cahn has filed an amended complaint (pdf) against Oversee.net after a judge tossed out many of his original claims against his former employer. The amended complaint includes new details regarding how Oversee.net allegedly affected Moniker’s revenues after the acquisition. First, Cahn explains that the acquisition violated Oversee.net’s advertising agreement with ... read more ...
Wed 7th September 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Companies Have 52 Days Starting Today to Manage .XXX - Sunrise period starts today for new .xxx domain name. Companies have 52 days starting today to participate in the “sunrise” period for .xxx domain names. The sunrise period closes October 28. During this period, trademark holders can apply for first dibs on .xxx domain names as well as pay a one time fee to block a .xxx corresponding to their trademark from ever being registered. Two sunrise options run concurrently. Sunrise A is designed for adult companies. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Here’s A .XXX Domain Name Sunrise Price Sheet - Price guide to domain registrars offering .xxx domain names. Companies wishing to participate in the .xxx sunrise kicking off today have a number of registrar options. I compiled a list of accredited registrars and their prices to help you choose. First, some caveats: 1. Only registrars included on ICM Registry’s web site are included here. I also only included registrars that have a direct link from the site to their .xxx page and have conspicuous pricing for .xxx ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
13 End User Domain Name Sales from a Past Week - Rediff among domain buyers over U.S. holiday week. Here’s a look at 13 end user domain sales facilitated by Afternic over the past week. Indian news site Rediff.com bought GoodKnowledge.com for $1,488. Future Visions, Inc., an authorized partner for Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, and Epicor, upgraded its domain name from eFutureVisions.com to FutureVisions.com for $8,580. The owner of nurse community site AllNurses.com bought AllTeachers.com for $1,344. I think we’ll ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UBM Confirms Data.com Domain Name Sale during $4.5 Million - Financial report mentions sale of “portfolio” of domains for $4.5 million. We basically already knew that Salesforce.com paid $4.5 million for the domain name Data.com. But if you’re looking for a little bit more proof of the transaction price, you’ll find it in the seller’s 2011 first half financial report. On page 35 of UBM Plc’s report it states: On 2 June 2011, the Group sold a portfolio of domain names for total consideration of $4.5m (£2.8m). ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Warning: Retargeted Ads a New Way for Trademark Holders to Go After Your Domains - Think your site doesn’t show ads related to a trademark? Think again. Have you ever noticed a Google Adsense ad that seems to have nothing to do with the context of the page you’re viewing? These are retargeted ads based on your previous web browsing. These ads may prove to be a new way for trademark owners to claim that your web site was designed to infringe on their marks. For years, trademark owners have manipulated the results on parked domain names to show ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Guy Sues Alamo Car Rental After Losing UDRP - Man in the home of the Alamo sues after losing UDRP for Alamo domain name. A San Antonio man has sued Vanguard Trademark Holdings USA LLC, which manages the Alamo car rental trademarks, after losing a UDRP for the domain name AlamoClub.com. John K. Rivenburgh found himself on the losing end of a decision handed down by National Arbitration Forum panelist Maninder Singh. If you read the complaint, you’ll find Rivenburgh’s claimed use of the domain rather plausible. ... read more ...
Tue 6th September 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
University of Michigan Needs to Go Back to Law School - University loses case against alleged phishing web site. The Regents of the University of Michigan have failed to take control of two domain names in a poorly argued UDRP case. The university filed the claim to get control of SurveyResearchCenter.com and SurveyClaim.com, the latter of which it alleged is a phishing web site. It claimed that it established the Survey Research Center in 1946. The panel granted that the SurveyResearchCenter.com domain name is confusingly ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Releases Drastic Improvement to Domain Parking Stats Interface - New interface loads faster and is more usable. Domain marketplace and parking service Sedo has released a completely redesigned stats interface. The new interface is a huge improvement over the old one, which could only be describe as confusing and slow. Indeed, while the new interface is much easier to understand and manipulate, the biggest improvement in my mind is the speed at which it loads. The old interface was so clunky that it usually froze up my Firefox ... read more ...