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 23rd September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Domain Auction Service BoxCar.com Launches - New domain name auction platform launches. DomainConsultant.com has launched BoxCar.com, a new domain name auction site. The service is very different from typical marketplaces such as Afternic and Sedo. It focuses on auctions only and you can list lots instead of just single domains. It’s also highly flexible, allowing you to set your own bid increments, buy-it-now option, reserve prices, etc. BoxCar.com also shuns the typical commission-based fee structure ... read more ...
Wed 22nd September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
EFF: New Domain Takedown Bill Would Break a Internet - EFF calls bill “misguided gift to a shortsighted industry”. Electronic Frontier Foundation is weighing in on the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, and it doesn’t like what it sees. In an analysis EFF posted online, the group says the bill would “break the Internet one domain at a time — by requiring domain registrars/registries, ISPs, DNS providers, and others to block Internet users from reaching certain websites.” EFF makes several ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Energy and People Drove Epik’s First Developers Conference - My thoughts on last week’s conference in Seattle. I’ve re-written this blog post a couple times as I try to get my head around the Epik Developers Conference last week in Seattle. I’m reflecting on what it means for Epik as well as for the domain community. This is no easy task. So I’m going to punt and go with a stream-of-conscious. Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way first. Professionalism – this is something often lacking in the domain name community. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Live Current Proxy Battle Exposing Ugly Truth - Company has murky past. The battle over Live Current Media’s board is heating up, and with each war of words more of the company’s questionable past comes out into the open. In Live Current’s Preliminary Proxy Statement for its upcoming meeting, current CEO Geoffrey Hampson said he began to have a falling out with the Jeffs family after Hampson didn’t have Live Current buy the web site Makeup.com. Confused? Take a look at the players. David Jeffs – former ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XXX Comment Period Brings Out a Form Letters - This time both sides of debate make use of “form” comments. The comment period for “Revised Proposed Registry Agreement for .XXX sTLD and Due Diligence Documentation” at ICANN ends Thursday. Much like last time, there are hundreds of comments submitted through online forms that basically says the same thing. But this time .xxx backer ICM Registry has decided two can play at that game. The company has added a form to its web site at icmregistry.com/forms. This ... read more ...
Tue 21st September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN To Review .Jobs Decision - .Jobs expansion plans hit a snag, but it’s probably minor. Following an outcry from the online job board industry, ICANN’s Board Governance Committee (BGC) agreed to reconsider opening up the .jobs space carte blanche. I doubt anything will come of this reconsideration request, even if the BGC recommends to the Board that it reverse its decision. We all know what happened after ICANN’s board reversed its original decision on .xxx. That issue is still carrying ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Registration Base May Top 200 Million This Quarter - There may already be 200M domains registered. It’s possible that the total number of domain names currently registered has already exceeded 200 million. In VeriSign’s latest Domain Industry Brief (pdf), the company says June ended with a total of 196.3 million domains registered across gTLDs and ccTLDs. That’s up about 3 million from the first quarter. The second quarter is generally a little slow for domain registrations, so we might see the increase more ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Announces Prague Party Locations - Networking and partying gets underway in a couple weeks in Czech Republic. DOMAINfest has announced that it will hold networking events and parties at two exclusive locations during October’s event in Prague. On October 6, Moniker and SnapNames have obtained exclusive use of the National Museum in Prague’s Vaclavske Square for a dinner party. It’s the oldest and largest museum in the Czech Republic. On October 7, DomainSponsor will host a dinner and party at ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DONE! Ventures Calls B.S. on NBC Over Women.com Deal - Company continues push to make NBC honor sale of Women.com and .net. DONE! Ventures has filed an opposition (pdf) to NBC Universal’s Motion to Dismiss its lawsuit over a failed transaction for Women.com and Women.net. DONE! had agreed to purchase the two domain names through NBC’s broker Sedo for $1 million. However, NBC backed out of the deal after it was allegedly vetoed by NBC Universal President CEO Jeff Zucker. DONE! sued to force NBC to complete the deal. NBC ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
HP Puts Digital.com Domain Name on a Auction Block - Digital.com goes up for sale. Technology giant HP is offering the domain name Digital.com for sale, but it’s going to cost you. The domain name has been listed in Moniker’s upcoming live domain name auction taking place in Prague October 6. Reserve price: somewhere between $1 million and $5 million. HP got the domain name when it acquired Compaq. Moniker will auction off 80 other domain names during its DOMAINfest conference live domain name auction. Among ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hey Ashford University, Go Back to Math Class - University loses claim for domain name registered five years prior to its existence. Bridgepoint Education’s Ashford University has lost a UDRP case for the domain name Ashford.net because it doesn’t understand how dates work. Bridgepoint bought Franciscan University of the Prairies in 2005 and renamed it Ashford University. It also got the corresponding Ashford.edu. In this UDRP case the University went after the owner of Ashford.net, but the domain name was ... read more ...
Mon 20th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Aftermarket.com Gears Up For Launch - New ideas come to online domain sales. Aftermarket.com is getting closer to its relaunch as an online marketplace for buying and selling domain names. In general the marketplace will be similar to what you have come to expect from Sedo and Afternic, but with some twists: Private auctions – you can hold your own private auction with up to 100 guests Domain data – pull DomainTools data directly into your listing Escrow – escrow will be handled through Escrow.com Aftermarket ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Proxy Battle Launched to Replace Live Current Media Board - Battle begins to replace board at Live Current Media. The former CEO of what is now Live Current Media has launched a proxy battle to regain control of the company’s Board of Directors. David Jeffs was CEO of the company from 2002 to 2007 when he hired Geoffrey Hampson to replace him. According to the proxy solicitation: In March 2010, Mr. Jeffs received from a shareholder of the Company a news release issued by Corelink Data Centers LLC, a Delaware company that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Austin Man Sues Entrepreneur Media, Claims Reverse Domain Hijacking - Entrepreneur Magazine came after small business owner over trademarks. An Austin businessman has sued Entrepreneur Media, publisher of Entrepreneur Magazine, after the publication sent a cease and desist to him for registering EntrepreneurOlogy.com. Daniel Castro is an author, speaker, trainer, and small business owner in Austin, Texas. In January 2009 he says he coined the term “EntrepreNeurology”, followed shortly thereafter by “EntrepreneurOlogy”. He ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Blackberry SurfBoard or SurfBook? One Domain Changed Hands. - The guessing game continues about RIM’s tablet name. Last week someone sent me a tip that Research in Motion filed trademark applications that might be related to its upcoming tablet. It looks like some of the tech press has picked up on the name “Surfbook” today due to RIM’s trademark filing. But the company recently filed a couple different trademarks, including for Blackberry Surfboard and Blackberry Surfbook. It’s really difficult to tell if either ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Importers.com Sells for $165,000 - Company offloads key web site and domain name. Live Current Media has concluded the sale of Importers.com for $165,000, Domain Name Wire has learned. In the company’s most recent 10-Q filed with the Securities Exchange Commission, the company alluded to a domain sale that included 3 payments: On April 6, 2010, the Company entered into an agreement to lease one of its domain names to an unrelated third party for $165,000 less $15,000 in commission. The terms of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Bill Could Allow U.S. Government to Shut Down Domain Names - Good intentions and a couple big problems. Kevin Murphy spotted a new bill that, if passed in its current form, would give the U.S. government more powers to shut down domain names used for piracy and counterfeiting. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act would make it easier for the government to shut down sites with pirated movies and music or selling counterfeit goods. On the surface that doesn’t sound too bad. But there are a couple things ... read more ...
Fri 17th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Del Monte Scores with Fruits.com - Produce company promotes Fruits.com on bananas. This past weekend I was at the grocery store and found myself taken aback while picking up some bananas: staring at me was a little fruit sticker with an advertisement for Fruits.com. “Buy a bunch, lose a bunch – Fruits.com” read the sticker, with a graphic of a scale. It turns out Fruits.com is owned by product company Del Monte. On the site you’ll find fruit recipes, a link to Del Monte’s iPhone app, and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ontario.com Domain Name Sold for 6 Figures - Canadian province domain name sells. Justin Godfrey of DIS, Inc tells Domain Name Wire that he has sold the domain name Ontario.com for an undisclosed six figure amount. Ontario is the most populated province in Canada with over 13 million residents. Toronto is located in Ontario. Given the size of Ontario, I suspect the deal was fairly substantial. The domain name was sold to a domain investor, but the whois hasn’t been updated yet to reflect the buyer’s identity. Godfrey ... read more ...
Thu 16th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Epik Conference Kicks off in Seattle - First ever Epik DevCon gets underway. The Epik Developers Conference kicked off last night with a welcome reception at the Edgewater hotel in Seattle. Right off the bat I’d say this is the coolest hotel for any domain name conference I’ve attended. The hotel is on the water — literally. It’s on a pier. You could literally drop a fishing line out the window and go fishing. (In fact, there’s a famous photo of The Beattles doing just that at the hotel). Here’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Southern Company Goes After Power Domain Names - Company files four UDRPs. Are these generic domains or trademarks? The Southern Company has filed four UDRP cases to get domain names that include a state or region and power company in them: georgiapowercompany.com mississippipowercompany.com alabamapowercompany.com gulfpowercompany.com This will be an interesting set of cases to follow. On the surface these may look like generic domain names. But the Southern Company has subsidiaries named the same as each of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rick Schwartz Awarded Epik Pioneer Award - Epik gives first Pioneer Award to Rick Schwartz. Epik just announced its first ever Domain Pioneer Award. And the winner is…Rick Schwartz. In a video shown at the Epik conference, several people congratulated Rick Schwartz: Ari Goldberger – domain attorney Warren Royal – showed off his Domain King bobblehead Also Rob Grant, Mike Zappy Zappolin, Chuck Hatcher, Frank Schilling (sporting a new hairdo), Dr. Chris Hartnett, David Castello, Michael Castello, David ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainConvergence Postponed Until Next Year - DomainConvergence postpones conference. DomainConvergence has postponed its conference originally scheduled for September 23-24. The conference will be rescheduled for next year. Event organizer Frank Michlick said it was postponed due to a personal emergency and lower expected attendance because of so many competing conferences in the same time of year. Michlick notified sponsors and attendees of the change. DomainConvergence was the first conference created in ... read more ...
Wed 15th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Devsa Provides Free Marketing Tools to Domainers - New domain name community has potential. Creating a marketplace is difficult. Getting traction with a social network is hard. One new domain name web site is trying to bring a bit of both together. Devsa calls itself a domain marketplace and social network. And it lives up to the billing, allowing you to buy and sell domain names as well as interact with other domainers and write blogs. The site has a solid user interface and some improvements to what you find ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Co Officially Hits 500,000 Registrations Today - .Co hits another big milestone. Just a couple months after general release, the .co namespace has now registered over half a million domain names effective today. 37% of registrations are from within the United States, followed by 17% in the United Kingdom. 12% of domain names are registered in Colombia. .Co is the country code domain name for Colombia, but has been commercialized and liberalized. Consumers and businesses have spent over $20 million registering ... read more ...