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 31st August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MyHealth.com Saved during National Arbitration Forum - Case over generic domain name denied. A National Arbitration Forum panelist has rejected a company’s claim to the domain name MyHealth.com. My Health, Inc registered its mark for “My Health” in 2009. But the registrant of the domain name acquired it prior to that (in 2007) for $150,000. Making matters worse, when My Health, Inc filed its complaint it thought that the respondent had owned the domain name since way back in 1995. Regardless of which date you ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Angels.com Sells for $200,000 - Broker sells Angels.com domain name. Sedo has sold the domain name Angels.com for $200,000 according to the company’s updated sales feed. The domain name is currently pending transfer. Earlier this month I pointed out that the domain being listed for auction presented another chance for Major League Baseball to pick up the domain name. Major League Baseball tried to get the domain name through a UDRP filing earlier but failed. At the time the seller wanted ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Retools Domain Searching - Domain marketplace release new search system. Sedo has released new searching tools that make it much easier to sift through the site’s 7 17 million domain names for sale. The new search allows you to add and change search criteria and get updated results on the fly. Limit the number of words in domains, price range, and even parking traffic (if the domain is parked at Sedo). You can also preview a listing by clicking on the domain rather than loading an entirely ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NBC Tries to Wriggle Out Of $1 Million Women.com Sale - NBC wants lawsuit over domain name dismissed. NBC Universal has filed a motion to dismiss (pdf) a lawsuit filed by DONE! Ventures over DONE!’s failed purchase of Women.com. DONE! claims it had an agreement to buy women.com and women.net from NBC, and that NBC later backed out of the deal that was brokered by Sedo. NBC’s first line of defense is that it hadn’t reached an agreement with DONE! because communications only referred to Women.com, not .net — so ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainName.com Domain and Registrar Sells - DomainConsultant.com reports that domain sold during auction today. DomainConsultant.com, which organized an auction today for DomainName.com, is reporting that the name has sold. Due to non-disclosure requests on both sides, we unfortunately cannot publish buyer or final selling price. We can tell you that, as predicted, DomainName.com name, site and registrar were sold today in a private auction. We can also tell you new owner will prosper and thrive, we have ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CareerBuilder and Monster Want to Stop .Jobs Domain Expansion - Group forms to object to .jobs expansion. A group calling itself The .JOBS Charter Compliance Coalition is asking ICANN’s board to reconsider its decision to open up the .jobs top level domain name to non-company name registrations. The coalition’s members include major employment web sites such as Monster and CareerBuilder, along with a number of associations. In a letter (pdf) to the Committee of the Board on Reconsideration, the group argues that: -The .jobs ... read more ...
Mon 30th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNCruise Giving Away Free Pass and Airfare - Cruise for domain industry sets sail in 6 weeks. The inaugural DNCruise sets sail October 11, and show organizer Chef Patrick is offering a free pass plus airfare to one lucky guest. In a post on his blog today, Patrick explains what you have to do to win the free pass. You’ll have to state your case on why you should get the free trip. Other than that the requirements are fairly minimal: you have to own 10 or more domains and have an interest in domaining. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Muscovitch: Canadian ccTLD Registry Rules in Need of an Overhaul - by Zak Muscovitch [In this guest article, Zak Muscovitch argues that the .ca domain name needs to be liberalized. Muscovitch is a domain attorney who is running for a seat on CIRA’s 2010 Board of Directors. -Andrew] While many countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and India, have opened up their ccTLD registries to foreigners, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (“CIRA”) has been stuck with the same closed-door policy since it enacted ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
German Domain Conference Kicks Off Thursday - German domain conference and auction takes place this week. Germany’s only dedicated domain name conference, DomainvermarkterForum, will take place this Thursday and Friday in Munich. The event is at the five-star Hotel Sofitel Bayerpost. Gold sponsors for the event include PartnerGate and, as you might guess given its German headquarters, Sedo. Sessions include: advantages of your own DENIC membership, speed networking, info on VeriSign Internet Profile Service, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Court Wants Explanation for Conflict of Interest over TRAFFIC Auction - Court asks for explanation, but it’s probably a moot point anyway. United States District Judge Susan Illston has asked DS Holdings and The United States to file a response to accusations that auctioning off domains previously held by John Zuccarini at a TRAFFIC auction would be a conflict of interest. Zuccarini complained to the court that this would be a conflict of interest since TRAFFIC co-organizer Howard Neu once represented him in the cybersquatting lawsuit ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Lawsuit Against Original CamRoulette.com Owner Settled - Case dropped pending settlement. A lawsuit filed against the original registrant of CamRoulette.com has been settled. Craig Snyder (not related to the Oversee.net employee) originally registered CamRoulette.com and sold it for $1,200. But another person, Fraser Brown, said he had already agreed to purchase the domain name from Snyder for $700 before Snyder sold it to the other party for $1,200. It likely wouldn’t have bothered anyone if it weren’t for the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Michael Phelps Foundation Sues Over Domain Name - Swimmer’s foundation goes after domain name owner. The non-profit Michael Phelps Foundation, established by the Olympic swimmer, has sued to get the domain name MichaelPhelpsFoundation.com. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Maine, names Domains by Proxy, Inc., a domain whois proxy service, and Does 1-10 as defendants. It is typical for a proxy service to be named in a lawsuit and it is typically dropped once the proxy service transfers the domain back to ... read more ...
Sun 29th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainName.com To Be Auctioned Tuesday - Generic domain name for domain industry goes on the block Tuesday. DomainConsultant.com’s auction of DomainName.com is taking place on Tuesday, August 31. This isn’t just an auction for the domain name — it includes an ICANN accredited registrar with an active customer base and about 8,000 domain registrations. That’s not a huge number, but if you take a look at what has been done with DomainName.com to date, it appears there’s a lot of upside. The package ... read more ...
Fri 27th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Warning: Registering a Domain While On The Toilet Could Be $10,000 Mistake - One man’s story should serve as a warning to domain name registrants. Blake Smith is a savvy internet user. After all, he runs a web consulting business. In his role he’s ordered dozens of domain names from GoDaddy for both himself and his clients. One of his clients orders domains at GoDaddy frequently enough that he decided to set up an account specifically for him, and even added the one-click payment option with GoDaddy where your credit card information ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Name Industry Week in Review - A week of news while I was away on vacation. I’m back from an enjoyable family vacation at Disneyland. If you ever make the trip, I highly recommend staying at this house — the kids will love it! Also, a quick shout out to my daughter, who just turned 4 last week yet braved Space Mountain. Gutsy girl. As much as I’d like to just click the pause button on the industry while I’m out of town, it doesn’t work that way. Here’s some of the week’s news, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
White House Wants to Meet with Registrars and ICANN Over Counterfeit Drugs - Obama administration wants to address illegal online pharmacies. The White House has called for a meeting with domain name registrars, registries, and ICANN to discuss rouge online pharmacies. According to an email obtained by Krebs on Security, White House Senior Adviser for Intellectual Property Enforcement Andrew J. Klein sent a letter earlier this month urging companies to send a representative to a meeting on September 29. A number of advocacy groups have called ... read more ...
Thu 26th August 2010
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Will New gTLDs Be Successful? Distribution Will Be Key. - by Ken Hansen, Neustar [A big hurdle for new top level domains is getting attention as potentially hundreds of competitors are launched concurrently in the near future. In this guest post Ken Hansen, Senior Director of Business Development at Neustar, explains that getting good distribution from domain registrars is key. Neustar Registry Services operates the global registry for .biz and .us and provides back-end registry services for .co, .tel and .travel. -Andrew] Will ... read more ...
Wed 25th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
ICANN Colombia Promises to be Hot, Hot, Hot - by Crystal Peterson [ICANN’s 39th Public Meeting is headed to Cartagena, Colombia this December. While much of the world pushes through frigid winter, .Co Internet Senior Marketing Manager Crystal Peterson promises it will be nice and warm in Colombia. -Andrew] I had the opportunity to travel to Cartagena in advance of the 39th Public ICANN meeting being held there in December. As the Sr. Manager of .CO Internet and therefore a host of the meeting, I am excited ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The IDN ccTLD Landscape: .рф and .日本 - by Aaron Krawitz, Gary Males Patrick Carleton [This article explores the latest with IDN ccTLDs such as .рф and .日本. Aaron Krawitz of IDNBlog and Gary Males of IDNDemystified co-own IDNDroplist, IDNTools and IDNNewsletter. Patrick Carleton is Executive Director of Associated Cities. -Andrew] Change is afoot in the world of IDN ccTLDs. Just a few days ago, we learned that the registry, JPRS, was the only one to apply to manage the .日本 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google May Change Domain Parking Requirements - DNS parking may be required in the future. A few days ago Sedo informed its customers that its primary advertising provider (read: Google) may change the way it allows domains to be parked. URL forwarding will be out and all domains will need to be parked using DNS. This change has been rumored for a while and likely has to do with tighter control and transparency for parked domains, as well as changes to how parked ads are served technically. According to the communication ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VirtualExpo.com Virtually Reverse Hijacked - French company guilty of reverse domain name hijacking for VirtualExpo.com. A French company has been found to have attempted reverse domain name hijacking of the domain VirtualExpo.com. M. Corentin Benoit Thiercelin, who claims to run a company called VirtualExpo, filed the complaint with WIPO to get the domain name. The domain was registered in 1996, well before the complainant filed trademarks on the name. The earliest of the trademarks was registered in 2005. The ... read more ...
Tue 24th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
DNS.com Charges Ahead Thanks in Part to Great Domain Name - DNS company gets marketing kick with DNS.com. Last month at HostingCon I met with Cloud.com to learn how their great domain name has propelled their business. I also got to spend time with domain industry show regular Sean Stafford, who’s latest venture DNS.com is off to the races. He proudly wore his DNS.com t-shirt throughout the show. Over tacos at lunch, Sean said that the DNS.com domain name has done wonders for his business. I caught up with him after the ... read more ...
 
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Incredibly Simple Domain Registrar Innovation - by Michael Goldstein [Sometimes dead simple innovation can have big results. In this post, Michael Goldstein discusses Hover’s “No-Hassle Renewals”. By implementing this simple feature the company has been able to reduce support costs while improving customer satisfaction. Goldstein is the VP of Marketing at Tucows, the company behind Hover.] Renewals should be the fun part of a domain name registration business for registrars. The phrase “make money while ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
10 Reasons You’re Not Selling More Domains - Here’s what’s stopping you from selling more domain names. 1. The distribution market is still fragmented – we’re still at a point where we have a fragmented market of domain listing distribution providers. There’s AfternicDLS, Domain Distribution Network, and to some extent Sedo. GoDaddy has a separate service to get in front of end users. As long as these systems aren’t fully cooperative, it’s harder to sell domains. 2. You aren’t listing them ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Still Growing on Inc 5000 - Domain registrar continues growth, lands on Inc 5000 again. GoDaddy continues its growth, landing on the Inc 5000 again in 2010. As the company gets bigger it makes it harder to turn in huge percentage growth numbers, but Inc reports 153% growth over the past three years. The revenue number for 2009 was reported as $610.3 million. Earlier I had reported $750 million in 2009 revenue, but this was not a GAAP number. I’m talking to GoDaddy in the next couple weeks ... read more ...