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 30th November 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Interview with $570k Buyer of HomeownersInsurance.com - Big domain purchase made sense for buyer. It’s always interesting to get inside someone’s mind after they make a major domain name purchase. Earlier today HomeInsurance.com CEO Carlos Lagomarsino was kind enough to give me some insight into his $570,000 purchase of HomeownersInsurance.com, which was announced today. Lagomarsino is obviously an expert in the home insurance arena with his HomeInsurance.com site. He purchased HomeInsurance.com back in 2007 for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hobbies.com Goes from Bankrupty Auction to Aftermarket (and Triples in Price) - Hobbies.com sale provides a nice return to the seller. Afternic brokered the sale of Hobbies.com this past week for $297,500, giving the seller a nice profit. The domain name has an interesting history. It was purchased along with iToys.com in the eToys bankruptcy auction back in February 2009 for $102,000. So even if iToys.com is worthless (which it’s not), the seller tripled his money in less than two years. This makes sense, as the auction for this domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FMA Wins Domain Dispute for VEDA.com and It’s a Wild One - Domain goes through UDRP for a second time. Future Media Architects (FMA) has won another UDRP, this time for the generic four character domain name Veda.com. That FMA won is not a surprise, but the history of this domain name and some of the complainant’s accusations make this case more interesting. Complainant VEDA GmbH actually won a UDRP for Veda.com back in 2003. But it failed to take ownership of the domain name after it won and FMA bought the domain name ... read more ...
Mon 29th November 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marksmen Gets Into Domain Sales Business - Company known for acquisitions starts pushing domain names for sale. Intellectual Property firm Marksmen is starting to play both sides of the field. The company has long been known in the domain name industry as a stealth domain name acquisition company. It works on behalf of large companies “who want to keep their identity and costs on the down low.” Now the company is getting into the sales side as well, launching a site called Name Quiver. The company is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Good and Bad of Government Domain Seizures - They serve a purpose but could potentially splinter the web. Over the long holiday weekend the U.S. government seized a number of domain names that were allegedly being used for piracy. Both Michael Berkens and Elliot Silver have given their thoughts on the seizures. They had somewhat different opinions. And I agree with both. I tend to agree with Elliot that there’s not much for the typical domain name owner to worry about. If you’re not doing anything illegal ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Olympics Threaten to Sue ICANN. Who Missed a Meeting? - Olympics say they’ll sue ICANN, but they were supposed to meet with ICANN earlier this year to hash our their differences. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has again informed ICANN that it will file a lawsuit if its trademarks are not added to a restrictions list for new domain names and if other protections aren’t instituted. Back in April 2009 the IOC first threatened to sue ICANN over the introduction of new top level domain names. In March of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Confirms Over 200 Million Domain Names Registered - Domain registrations hit another milestone. Today VeriSign released its third quarter Domain Name Industry Brief (pdf) and confirmed something I suspected already — there are now more than 200 million domain names registered worldwide. By VeriSign’s count, there were more than 201.8 million domain names registered at the end of September, an increase of 3.8 million over the end of June. (The company must have revised its June number up, as it previously reported ... read more ...
Sun 28th November 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Art World Gets Title Insurance, Are Domain Names Next? - You can insure the title of art, but domain names lag behind. I’ve written numerous times about the potential of domain name title insurance. I’ve argued it’s not a profitable product to offer. Although I still feel that way, I was surprised to see an article in the latest Economist about title insurance for art. The article discusses Blanchisseuses souffrant des dents by Edgar Degas, which Sotheby’s listed for sale in an auction. Someone viewing the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domaining.com To Launch New Domain Escrow Service - New escrow service coming in December. Cybertonic, the company behind Domaining.com, is readying a new domain name escrow service at eCOP.com. The service appears to be only for domain names sold for $5,000 or less and will charge a flat $25 fee. eCOP will not take ownership of the domain name and will only be an intermediary to hold the money until the domain name is transferred. Focusing only on smaller domain name transactions is an interesting idea and I’ll ... read more ...
Sat 27th November 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
HostGator: 10% Raises, No Longer for Sale, and Taking on GoDaddy - Web host plans for big growth. Web hosting company HostGator has published excerpts of founder Brent Oxley’s recent email to employees. I found it interesting on a number of fronts. 1. The company is giving its Houston employees a 10% raise immediately. This sounds like what Google recently did. This 10% is on top of any usual raises. 2. HostGator is no longer for sale. Oxley said he had an end-of-year deadline to sell the company and he’s taking it off ... read more ...
Wed 24th November 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
2 Things for Domain Investors To Be Thankful for this Thanksgiving - Keep your chin up. The year will finish strong. This year has been one of ups and downs for domain name investors, but I have reason to be thankful as we move past Thanksgiving into the final month of the year. 1. The Yahoo-Bing transition is complete and revenue is stabilizing. True, not all Yahoo advertisers made the move to Microsoft. But with the holidays here even more advertisers will pay attention to advertising on Bing. In the long run this partnership ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Queen Cancels Holiday Party, But Go Daddy Goes All In - Domain registrar to continue tradition of big holiday parties. The latest issue of Bloomberg Businessweek has a story titled “The End of the Office Holiday Party” that prominently features domain name registrar Go Daddy. The article starts off by mentioning that Queen Elizabeth II canceled this year’s Christmas Party, saying it wouldn’t be right to throw a lavish party while asking everyone else to cut back. But there’s one company that’s not cutting back, ... read more ...
Tue 23rd November 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Zuccarini Case Against NameJet, NetSol, et al Moved to Virginia - Court transfers lawsuit to Virginia. In a move that may have been expected by some observers, John Zuccarini’s lawsuit against NameJet, Network Solutions, eNom, and VeriSign has been transferred to the Eastern District of Virginia. The case stems from some of John Zuccarini’s domain names that were transferred to a receiver after a cybersquatting judgment against him. The receiver let some of the domain names expire and they were subsequently auctioned off on ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Gets Social Networking Portal Patent - Domain registrar gets patent for social networking dashboard. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. patent number 7840690 to The Go Daddy Group for “Internet portal for managing social websites”. The patent appears to be related to the company’s SmartSpace web service, which aggregates multiple social networks into a single dashboard. In the application, Go Daddy says that it has found a problem with current methods of aggregating social network ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Beem.com Sells for $136k, BlackFridaySales.com for $90k - Beem.com and BlackFridaySales.com sell for big bucks. Sedo has sold the domain name Beem.com for $136,000. The domain name is still pending transfer and the buyer’s identity is not yet known. The company also brokered the sale of BlackFridaySales.com to Frank Schilling’s Name Administration for $90,000. The domain name was sold by RegistrarAds, an affiliate of domain name registrar Dotster. Schilling already owned BlackFriday.net, so he probably had a good ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Michael Berkens Sells MyRecovery.com for $40k with Help of Afternic - MyRecovery.com trades hands, buyer has big plans. The top reported sale coming out of Afternic this week is for MyRecovery.com at a healthy $40,000. The seller? Worldwide Media, Inc, run by blogger and domainer Michael Berkens. The buyer has already uploaded a placeholder in anticipation of his 2011 launch of the site. It reads: Inside myRecovery you will find comprehensive on-line programs, services, and solutions to alcoholism and drug dependency based on the ... read more ...
Mon 22nd November 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Now You Can Friend DNW on Facebook, Too - Another way to stay up-to-date with the latest from Domain Name Wire. I get a lot of traffic from Twitter, yet some readers have told me they don’t use the microblogging service. They prefer to get updates from Facebook. Your wish is granted. Now you can get Domain Name Wire updates, including both the latest blog posts as well as links and thoughts on other industry announcements, at facebook.com/DomainNameWire. If you already follow Domain Name Wire on twitter ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Schilling Beats New York Times in Landmark UDRP - Frank Schilling beats media behemoth; panel decision could be important. Frank Schilling’s Name Administration has won a case against the New York Times Company over the domain name DealBook.com. But it’s more than a victory; the National Arbitration Forum panel also addressed an issue that most other panels have dismissed: doctrine of laches. As described by the panel, “Laches is an equitable doctrine that may provide a defense when an adverse party has unreasonably ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
156 .Co Landrush Auctions to be ReRun - Some domain names applied for under landrush will be auctioned next year in open auction. The .co registry ran approximately 2,500 landrush auctions for .co domain names during its relaunch this year. But 156 of the auctions didn’t close for one reason or another, and these domain names will be auctioned again in the first quarter of 2011 at Pool.com. The 156 domains will be auctioned in an open format, meaning that even if you didn’t submit a landrush application ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rupert Murdoch Buys TheDaily.com and The-Daily.com Domain Names - Domain name purchases come in advance of new make-for-tablet newspaper. Earlier today news hit the web that News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch is working on a new iNewspaper called “The Daily”. The Daily will be designed for tablets such as the iPad. This caught one Domain Name Wire reader off guard, as he recalls previously visiting TheDaily.com from ASSIST Information Services. As it turns out, ASSIST sold the domain name to Murdoch’s company a while back ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fox Loses Free Speech Trademark Battle with DISH Network - Fox may be back on the error, but DISH can keep its Fox domain names. Dish Network and News Corporation’s Fox Networks may have settled their contract dispute, but there was still an outstanding issue over some domain names. In this battle, DISH Network won. After Fox pulled some of its channels from DISH Network this fall, DISH registered a number of domain names to bring attention to the issue: foxshakedowndish.com weofferedfoxafairdeal.com foxrefused.com jointhefightagainstfox.com Fox ... read more ...
Fri 19th November 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Announces Keynote and Improves on Winning Formula - Biggest domain name conference tweaks formula and adds famous author to agenda. The biggest annual conference geared to domain name investors is less than three months away. DOMAINfest Global 2011 will take place February 1-4 in Santa Monica, California. Last year’s event brought together over 600 internet and domain name professionals. Yesterday DOMAINfest organizer DomainSponsor announced a fireside chat/keynote with Ben Mezrich, Author of “The Accidental Billionaires: ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Live Current Nixes Karate.com Deal, Changes Course on Perfume.com - Changes in Karate.com and Perfume.com plans. Live Current Media is making some changes. First, back in August the company terminated a venture with Rob Monster’s Domain Strategies, Inc. to co-develop the Karate.com domain name. The agreement was originally inked on May 15, 2009. The two parties decided to discontinue the venture and the domain name was returned to Live Current. Second, Live Current’s new management is changing course on the company’s Perfume.com ... read more ...
Thu 18th November 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Did Nokia Just Sell Dashboard.com? - Interesting changes to Dashboard.com domain name. It looks like Nokia may have just sold the domain name Dashboard.com, but some of the changes to the domain name don’t quite add up. Nokia got the domain name when it acquired Intellisync Corporation in 2005. It then forwarded the domain name to a landing page saying that Intellisync was now part of Nokia. On November 17 the whois record for Dashboard.com changed to DNStination Inc. DNStination is part of Mark ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Facebook and American Farm Bureau Still Haven’t Settled over FB - FB trademark still an open issue between parties. Facebook bought the domain name FB.com from American Farm Bureau. But unlike what Mark Zuckerberg told the audience Monday when launching the social network’s new messaging system, the two parties haven’t settled an ongoing trademark dispute. During Monday’s launch Zuckerberg said: “The farm bureau has agreed to give us FB.com and we in return have agreed to not sell Farm subsidies.” Not according to ... read more ...