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.

Wed 29th June 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
When a Business Relationship Goes Sour, Make Sure You Own a Domain Name - Another lawsuit shows that domain names are important intellectual property. I’ve written numerous times about web design companies holding a client’s domain name hostage. Here’s another cautionary tale about domain name ownership. A Florida company called StableTracker.com, Inc says that its former outsourced tech team has stolen its intellectual property and its domain name (pdf). StableTracker.com, Inc. says it contracted with the (now) defendants to perform ... read more ...
Tue 28th June 2011
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Domain Brand Management Company Says It Will Sue Over IVX.com - After losing UDRP, IVX says it will go to court for domain name. Last week I wrote about Dutch company Besloten Vennootschap IVX Networks Europe B.V. The brand management and global domain name registration company uses the domain name IVX.eu. It filed a UDRP against the owner of IVX.com and lost. An astute reader has picked up that the company tweeted it will now sue to get the domain name: shame: lost WIPO arbitration case about ivx.com domain.. Monday to sollicitor: ... read more ...
 
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ICANN Video Explains New TLDs to a Masses - New top level domain names in just six minutes. Last week ICANN published a video explaining what new top level domain names are and what they mean to companies and businesses that might want to apply for one. I think it does a good job of describing what new top level domains are and explains some of the challenges applicants face — including steep fees and a long wait. Of course there are many more challenges than what you can explain in a short video, but I ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Domain Names Bain and Other End Users Bought from Afternic This Week - A look at end user domain buyers from the past week. Afternic’s extended network of domain name sales sites brings in end users. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the company’s $600,000+ in domain sales for the past week and who the buyers were. Consulting firm Bain bought Repeatability.com for $4,000. Sounds like a strategic consulting name to me! Monarch Mortgage upgraded its domain name from MonarchMtg.com to MonarchMortgage.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
School Equipment Company Buys MarkerBoards.com and Other Sedo Sales - A review of this week’s domain sales at Sedo. Apparently my review of Afternic sales earlier today in which I showed who the buyers were struck a chord. I’d like to do the same thing with Sedo’s results, except that most of the domains are still in escrow whenever they send out their list. But I’ll try, and perhaps sometimes I’ll go back and pull in some sales from the previous week that now have updated whois information. Here’s a match made in heaven: ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
LivingSocial Discovers It Has Typosquatters - Company files several domain name disputes. Local deals site LivingSocial has finally discovered that it has typosquatters — and that there’s a relatively affordable way to get its domain names back. Earlier this month it filed its first domain name arbitration case, going against the Irish country code domain name LivingSocial.ie. Now it’s ramping up its efforts by filing three cases with National Arbitration Forum this week. Each case costs about $1500 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Sued in Oregon, Finds Itself in Florida Bankruptcy Court Case - Woman sues ICANN over expired domains; case gets snarled in Florida bankruptcy case. An impoverished woman has sued ICANN in Oregon over expired domain names, and now the non-profit finds itself having to file a brief in a Florida bankruptcy court. Denise Subramaniam sued ICANN in Oregon back in March over domain names she registered for clients that expired. She says the domain registrar became insolvent and that ICANN didn’t do a good enough job enforcing its ... read more ...
Mon 27th June 2011
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Adam Dicker Dishes on Domain Industry and DNForum - DNForum founder discusses the state of domain investing and his popular forum. I last interviewed DNForum owner Adam Dicker over five years ago. A lot has changed in the domain industry since then, so I thought it would be a good time to connect again. DNW: Bring readers up to speed on how big the forum is now in terms of users, visitors, etc. Adam: Dnforum.com is now up to about 106,000 members and that number grows by over 250 each day. We have over 1.7 million ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Could Shake Up Domain Registry Market - Registrar could take a big chunk of back end services business for new top level domain names. Last week new TLD consultancy Minds + Machines announced flat rate registry services pricing of $100,000 per year. Apparently this is the first time there’s been “transparent” pricing in the registry business, although the pricing doesn’t apply to super-generic top level domains (i.e. ones that get a lot of volume). Although this might lay it out on the table a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
My Thoughts on a Go Daddy Buyout - What a Go Daddy sale would mean. If the chatter is to be believed, The Go Daddy Group could announce a multi-billion dollar buyout sometime this week. While neither Go Daddy nor the buyers will confirm or deny this, it’s typical for bankers involved in the deal to leak news like this. It helps bring other potential suitors to the table and puts pressure on the buyers to close the deal. Go Daddy has been shopping itself around unofficially for a while. Word is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Gay Trademark Application Filed - Trademark frontrunning continues. A Washington man has filed an intent-to-use trademark application for “.gay” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Thomas Petersen DBA Creighton Investments, LLC filed the application on June 20 just after ICANN approved a plan to open up the top level domain name system. Petersen doesn’t seem to be connected to either of the two groups that have publicly announced plans to apply for the .gay top level domain name thus ... read more ...
Sun 26th June 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Microsoft Lists Over 100 Domains For Sale on Sedo - Company gets proactive with domain sales. Yesterday I wrote about Microsoft’s sale of Do.com. Last month Microsoft finally relented and sold HotList.com to startup TheHotList.com. But it appears that Microsoft might also be proactively selling some of its domain names. Abdu Tarabichi noticed that the software giant has listed over 100 domain names for sale on domain marketplace Sedo. If you type any of the domains into your browser, they’ll forward you to a ... read more ...
Sat 25th June 2011
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Microsoft Sells (or Places for Sale) Do.com - Domain name transfers to IP protection company. An old Microsoft domain name has changed hands. The whois record for Do.com changed yesterday from Microsoft to Glendale, California company Marksmen. Marksmen is an intellectual property company that often helps companies acquire domain names. But it also owns NameQuiver, a domain name brokerage that sells domains on behalf of other companies. NameQuiver was the seller broker for the now complete $2.6 million Social.com ... read more ...
Fri 24th June 2011
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NYP: KKR Looking to Buy Go Daddy for $1 Billion Plus - New York Post says web hosting and domain giant may be sold for over $1 billion. The New York Post is reporting that Henry Kravis’ KKR is leading a group that is trying to buy Go Daddy for over $1 billion in a leveraged buy out. Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports the deal is in the $2B range. A Go Daddy spokeswoman told the New York Post “”We’ve heard rumors like this before and when there’s something happening we will comment” and KKR said it doesn’t comment ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Company Files UDRP for 3 Letter Domain, Loses - Domain registrar loses UDRP. [Update June 28: IVX tweeted that it plans to sue.] A domain name registration and brand protection company has tried its hand at filing a UDRP for its own name — and lost. Dutch company Besloten Vennootschap IVX Networks Europe B.V, which owns IVX.eu, filed the case to upgrade its domain name to IVX.com. The ten year old company specializes in international domain name registration and brand protection. The owner of the domain claimed ... read more ...
Thu 23rd June 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Domain Parking Company Comes Onto a Scene - Rook Media opens its doors to more domain owners. Rook Media is coming out from behind the shadows. The new domain parking service has been in a closed beta with very large domainers since February. But as of today, it’s open to the public. The company is backed by a number of former senior managers from Name Drive who left when the company was acquired. Co-founder Ash Rahimi explained to Domain Name Wire who their ideal client is: Our aim is to make the experience ... read more ...
 
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Monte Cahn Adds Allegations to Complaint Against Oversee.net - Cahn adds allegations and drops one claim. Moniker founder Monte Cahn has filed an amended lawsuit against Oversee.net, which purchased Moniker in 2007 from Seevast. Cahn sued Oversee claiming that he was not properly paid under a $13 million incentive plan. Oversee has asked for most of the case to be dismissed on the grounds that it’s a simple contract dispute. [Update: Moniker has released the following statement to DNW: “This is a legal matter that is now ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A First: Complainant Loses Case for .Co Domain Name - Champagne.co becomes first .co domain name case won by respondent. A complainant has finally lost a UDRP case for a .co domain name. Comite Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne has lost the case it brought for the domain name Champagne.co. The decision text hasn’t been posted yet, but this is the first time a complainant has lost a .co complaint at World Intellectual Property Forum since .co was liberalized last year. I’m not sure about National Arbitration ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Social.com Domain Name Transfers to Buyer’s Broker - Looks like the payment went through for Social.com. Social.com, which Ron Jackson says is under contract to sell at $2.6 million, has an updated whois. As of today, the whois record at Network Solutions says the owner is New Yorker Kevin Bingo. However, the whois record is not complete with an address nor does it have a valid phone number. Furthermore, it appears this is the buyer’s broker for the domain name, not the buyer. Kevin Bingo’s twitter account looks ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Service Hopes to Make Seller-Financed Domain Transactions Easier - Service manages seller financed domain sales. A new service called Zenscrow hopes to bring more liquidity to the domain name market by making seller financed domain sales easier. Companies such as Escrow.com and Moniker already offer payment plan escrow services, but Zenscrow takes it a step further. There are two benefits I see to Zenscrow compared to typical payment plan services. First, Zenscrow provides a domain sale or lease agreement. Second, the company monitors ... read more ...
Wed 22nd June 2011
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ICANN to Undertake Four Whois Studies - Studies to examine how whois is used — and misused. ICANN announced it will spend $530,000 to undertake four separate studies of whois. The studies are partially a result of a request by the Governmental Advisory Committee in 2008. 1. Misuse of whois – how people misuse whois information, such as for marketing and spamming purposes. 2. Whois Registrant Identification – classify the various types of entities that register domains, including natural persons, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Has Men.com Sold Again? - Curious changes at Men.com. Has Men.com, which Rick Schwartz sold for seven figures nearly a decade ago, changed hands again? That’s a rumor I’m chasing down. If you have any other information, please comment on it. [Update: I’ve confirmed the domain has sold. Men.com, LLC had two managing members left as of the company’s latest annual report with Florida.] Here’s the deal. In early April the administrative contact for the domain changed from Men.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google to Listen In? Company Buys Listen.in - Company acquires Listen.in domain name. Google has made a curious domain acquisition — Listen.in. Technically it’s an Indian country code domain name, so perhaps we should just ignore the obvious phrase “Listen In”. But it’s more fun if you don’t ignore it. What’s Google up to? The company does have a product called Google Listen that’s in Google Labs. Oh, and there were those apparent plans to “listen in” to your computing environment. Of course ... read more ...
 
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Two Things that Could Derail a New Top Level Domain Timeline - Government action and lawsuits could slow down new TLD rollout. So ICANN has approved the new top level domain name program and set out the timeline. Full steam ahead? There are two possible forces that could slow this down. One would be some sort of government action. Governments aren’t happy, and there’s that looming IANA contract expiration coming up later this year. The U.S. could use it to force concessions. As I’ve noted before, any delay in new TLDs ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XXX Formally Announces IFFOR Board - Group to help set policy for new .xxx domain name. One of the interesting quirks about the new .xxx domain name is that it will help fund a group called International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR). IFFOR will get $10 from every domain registration in order to initiate “a series of policies for responsible business practices and conduct within the .XXX online adult-entertainment community”. Today the group sent out a press release formally announcing ... read more ...