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 9th May 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A Domain Name Post That Will Have You ROFLMA - Some sophisticated domain name humor. Sometimes it’s tough being a blogger. The articles I spend the most time writing often get the least amount of traffic. So I want to urge you to read a post over at Domain Incite that not only took a while to research and write, but is as close as you can get to sophisticated Jon Stewart humor for the domain policy crowd. The 10 dumbest moments from that new TLDs Congressional hearing pokes fun at the politicians (and to a ... read more ...
Sun 8th May 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Urgent: Factions Want to Impose Uniform Rapid Suspension on .Net - Business Constituency may propose new regulations for .net. The comment period for the proposed renewal of the .net registry agreement ends on May 10, yet no one has commented to date. But there will be comments by time the comment period closes, and one could be a bombshell: a proposal to apply the untested Uniform Rapid Suspension scheme to .net. Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) is a trademark rights protection mechanism that is likely to apply to new top level domain ... read more ...
Fri 6th May 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy’s Home Page Through a Years - Go Daddy home page past and present. I was doing some research on DomainTools recently when I came across thumbnails of the GoDaddy.com home page going back to 2004. It tells and interesting story; seeing the thumbnails right next to each other shows how the site became incredibly cluttered from 2005-2009 before “opening” up again. As a point of reference, here’s GoDaddy.com a few weeks ago: Here’s the home page at the height of cluttered-ness in 2005-2006: Yikes! In ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
EuroDNS and ICANN Trade Jabs - Popular European domain registrar and ICANN continue to spar over Facebok.com. Following a notice of breach sent by ICANN to EuroDNS, the two companies have traded jabs in correspondence. On April 25 EuroDNS CEO Xavier Buck sent a letter (pdf) to ICANN explaining why it had not transferred the domain name Facebok.com, which was lost in a UDRP case. Buck expressed disappointment that ICANN sent the breach notice that publicly “put under question” EuroDNS’ reputation. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rick Schwartz Buys Deathers.com from Mike Mann - Schwartz buys domain name related to Osama bin Laden’s death. Now that the “birthers” conspiracy theory of Barrack Obama not being born in the U.S. has hopefully been put to rest (seriously, it should have been put to rest a couple years ago), here come the “Deathers”. Deathers believe that Osama bin Laden didn’t really die in the raid this week. Seriously. Out of curiousity I looked up who owns the domain name Deathers.com and was surprised to see “Domain ... read more ...
Thu 5th May 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kevin Ham Wins Another, and You Won’t Believe What a Complainant Argued - Complainant tells panel how it generated PPC results of its competitors. Kevin Ham’s Vertical Axis has successfully defended BrightSign.com in a UDRP with the help of Ari Goldberger of ESQwire. Vertical Axis won for a number of reasons, including that the domain name was registered well before the complainant started using the term “Bright Sign” in commerce. Of course, it’s also a generic domain name. But the funny part is the ridiculous assertion BrightSign ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Eva Longoria Adds .Org To Her Collection - Actress wins UDRP for EvaLongoria.org domain name. Actress Eva Longoria of Desperate Housewives fame has added the domain name EvaLongoria.org to her collection of domain names. Longoria won the domain name through an arbitration case with National Arbitration Forum. The domain name was registered to a Las Vegas company that forwarded the domain to an eBay search for the actress. The actress already owns EvaLongoria.com and EvaLongoria.net. All three domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Confirmed: New Paul Stahura Venture “Donuts” is for Domain Names - Stealth venture files trademark application indicating new domain name venture. This past weekend we learned that four domain name industry vets, including eNom founder Paul Stahura, were forming a new company called Donuts Inc. The company raised about a million dollars of investment. Although the company is in stealth mode, the players involved make me think the four are starting a venture related to new top level domain names. A trademark application with the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
National Motor Club Hits Jackpot, Wins 3 Letter Domain in UDRP - Group wins 3 letter domain name when owner doesn’t respond. National Motor Club of America, Inc. is the proud new owner of the three letter domain name NMC.com, which it won in a UDRP decision handed down by National Arbitration Forum. The owner of the domain name has used whois privacy at Network Solutions for many years. They didn’t respond the the complaint, and my guess is they didn’t even receive it. Typically a panel will consider handing over a three ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainConvergence Canceled for Second Year in a Row - Domain conference canceled after failing to get sufficient registrations. DomainConvergence, a domain name conference held in Canada, has canceled its show for the second year in a row. In a blog post today, event organizer Frank Michlick wrote: I am sorry to inform you that the DomainConvergence conference, originally scheduled to be held next week here in Montreal (May 12/13) is canceled due to lack of registrations. All paid registration fees will be refunded and ... read more ...
Wed 4th May 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yep, .Jobs Dispute is Now Going to Cost YOU Money - Employ Media files for arbitration. On Tuesday I surmised that the .jobs dispute between Employ Media and ICANN was about to cost you — the domain name owners that pay hefty fees to ICANN — a lot of money. Indeed, it appears the lawyers’ clocks have already started billing hours. Yesterday Employ Media filed for arbitration with ICANN. This will be a very expensive process, even if ICANN wins. In its complaint (thanks Domain Incite), Employ Media says that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company Behind “SkyCam” Sports Cameras Loses Domain Dispute - Kevin Ham’s company wins case brought by SkyCam. SkyCam, the company behind those overhead cameras used during football broadcasts, has lost a domain name dispute with Kevin Ham’s Vertical Axis. A three person panel was split on whether or not the domain name was registered in bad faith. Two of the panelists ruled that it wasn’t registered and used in bad faith because: – the skycam.com domain name is comprised entirely of common terms that have many meanings ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Monte Cahn Sues Oversee.net Over $13 Million Incentive Plan [Updated] - Moniker founder files suit against acquirer. [Story updated with Moniker statement at end.] Moniker founder Monte Cahn has sued Oversee.net along with its current CEO Jeff Kupietzky and founder Lawrence Ng over a $13 million inventive plan. Cahn sold his Moniker domain name registrar and related businesses to Seevast in 2005. In 2007 Oversee.net approached Seevast and Moniker about buying the business, according to the complaint. It agreed to a purchase price of ... read more ...
Tue 3rd May 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Osama bin Laden Domain Registrations by The Numbers - Over 100 Osama bin Laden domains registered per hour. Yesterday I wrote about how people were snapping up domain names related to Osama bin Laden and then trying to sell them on eBay. Although VeriSign’s Domain Tag Cloud showed that people were certainly registering a lot of them, I now have some concrete numbers. GoDaddy, which registers about half of all new domain name registrations these days, registered 1,517 domain names related to Osama bin Laden in the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SedoMLS Opens to All, But Limited Registrar Partners - Distributed listings and instant transfer service now available to all domain name owners. Sedo has opened its SedoMLS program to all customers. The beta was previously only available for large customers. SedoMLS is similar to AfternicDLS, which lets you syndicate your domain listings to multiple registrars. When the domain sells, it is instantly transferred to the new buyer. All domain names must be listed at a fixed price to qualify. In order to use the service ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top 5 Domain Name Wire Stories of Apr 2011 - Here’s a look back at the last month in domaining. These are the top five stories from last month on Domain Name Wire. 1. Domain Owners Should Not Worry About Poker Domain Seizures – most domain owners need not worry about what happened to poker domains. 2. The Real Story Behind the $700,000 RunningShoes.com Sale – the ups and downs of negotiating for a $700,000 domain name. 3. Bob Parsons Updates Elephant Shooting Video – Go Daddy founder Bob Parsons publicly ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fight Over .Jobs is About to Cost Domain Name Owners - Legal bills could start coming in as two sides bicker of .jobs domain name. An argument between .jobs registry Employ Media and ICANN has already cost some legal dollars, and I have a feeling it’s about to get more expensive. Although the two parties are technically in a process of “Cooperative Engagement”, recent correspondence is not favorable. In fact, the parties are sending correspondence about correspondence. On April 22 counsel for Employ Media sent ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ProForma: Why Build a Brand When You Can Buy One? - Domain broker files trademark application for a great slogan. Domain name broker ProForma Inc has filed a trademark application for a nifty slogan: Why Build a Brand When You Can Buy One? ProForma handles domain name brokerage for “some of the world’s largest portfolios of premium, generic domain names.” Anyone who has ever visited a domain owned by Frank Schilling’s Name Administration is familiar with ProForma, as Schilling uses ProForma for domain inquiries. The ... read more ...
Mon 2nd May 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Here Come a Osama bin Laden Domain Names - Domain registrants try to capitalize on Osama bin Laden’s death. Whenever there’s a major news event — good or tragic — domain name registrations follow. Such is the case with the killing of Osama bin Laden on Sunday. People are registering a number of domains with the late terrorists’ name. VeriSign’s “Domain Tag Cloud” shows that both “killed” and “laden” are popular keywords in domains registered in the past 24 hours. And of course once ... read more ...
Sun 1st May 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Four Domain Industry Execs including eNom Founder Paul Stahura Form New Venture - Venture in stealth mode, but deck stacked for new top level domain names. eNom founder Paul Stahura, who sold his domain name registrar to Demand Media in 2006, has teamed up several other industry vets for a new venture reports GeekWire. The stealth venture called Donuts Inc has raised $1 million according to SEC filings. Former Network Solutions VP Jonathon Nevett is one of the company’s executives. Nevett has been an active consultant for new top level domain ... read more ...
Sat 30th April 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
My Commentary on Commentary.com, Which Just Survived a UDRP - Domain owner wins case but panelist’s rationale is troublesome. The owner of the generic domain name Commentary.com has successfully defended his domain name from The American Jewish Committee (AJC) in a UDRP. AJC has operated Commentary Magazine since 1945, thus its interest in the domain name. The owner of Commentary.com registered it all the way back in 1997. He immediately started using the site to publish executive summaries of Chinese commentaries in English. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Buys Plus.me - Google bolsters +1 domain name coverage with .me purchases. Google has purchased the domain name Plus.me, updated whois records show. The domain name was apparently purchased in November of last year, but remained under whois privacy protection until today. The purchase appears to be related to Google’s +1 tool (pronounced “plus one”), as the company also purchase plusone.me at the same time. Plus.me now has Google nameservers but does not yet resolve. The ... read more ...
Fri 29th April 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
ICANN Investigates United Domains’ Pre-Registration of New TLDs - Domain registrar upsets group about its plans for .lac TLD. There are a number of web sites accepting “pre-registrations” for new top level domain names. Since no one can apply for these new TLDs yet, it’s all speculative on the part of the services. But domain name registrar United Domains recently launched a program that drew the ire of one possible new gTLD applicant. The company’s pre-registration system offered .LAC and said it was being supported ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Should We Expect .Com Price Increases, Too? - Yes. The question is how much. VeriSign is in the process of trying to renew its contract with ICANN to run .net. It includes significant price increases similar to its current contract. Should we expect VeriSign to ask for continuing .com price increases as well? Of course. On the company’s recent investor conference call, analyst Todd Raker of Deutsche Bank AG asked: And can you talk about — as you went through the .net renewal process, are there any takeaways ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Full Tilt Poker Has Its Name Back, Now Gets Typos Too - Full Tilt Poker wins more typo domains through arbitration. Wouldn’t it have been ironic had Full Tilt Poker not been in possession of FullTiltPoker.com when it won rights to several typos? Pocket Kings Limited, which owns Full Tilt Poker, picked up 3 domain names through UDRP this week. That makes a dozen total typo domain names it has won in April. The latest three were fulltiltepoker.com, fulltiltpokar.net, and fultiltpocker.net. Most of the typos are of the ... read more ...