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 16th October 2014
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Oooh: .ooo domain name takes over front page of Times of India - New top level domain pays for front page impact. The backers of the new .ooo domain name have crazy predictions for how many domain names they’ll sell. I’ll tip my hat to them for at least backing it up with some crazy advertising. Indian e-commerce company Infibeam took out the entire front page of the Times of India today as an ad. Every “fake” article on the page is about domain names and e-commerce, with a play on “ooo” in the headline. Anil over ... read more ...
 
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10 photos from ICANN 51 - A quick visual look at this week’s ICANN meeting in Los Angeles. It has been a busy, busy week in Los Angeles. I’ll have more thoughts on ICANN 51 later. For now, I have a collection of photos from in and around the event. Captions are below each photo. Entertainment during TLD Registry (“Dot Chinese Online” and “Dot Chinese Website”) and .Club event on Sunday at a popular Chinese restaurant. I also had a chance to hang out with TLD Registry when it was ... read more ...
 
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Governments import in on village and two-letter domain names - ICANN GAC concerned about community priority evaluations but not two-letter domain names. The Governmental Advisory Committee to ICANN has issued its GAC Communique (pdf) from this week’s meeting in Los Angeles. There are a couple notable items on it related to new top level domain names. First, the GAC noted apparent inconsistencies with recent Community Priority Evaluations and asked ICANN to consider an appeal process. Based on the language, it appears governments ... read more ...
Wed 15th October 2014
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Do-Over: 2 TLD apps that mislaid in objections get another chance - .Cam and Amazon IDN domain name decisions will be reviewed. ICANN is giving two new top level domain name applications another look after embarrassing inconsistencies in string confusion objections. The board’s new TLD committee determined that decisions against Amazon.com’s .通販 application and Rightside’s .cam should be reviewed. I provide the background to this story in detail here. In the case of .cam, Verisign succeeded in a string confusion objection ... read more ...
 
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Grafitti artist Banksy final Banksy.com domain name - Agent files UDRP to get domain name. Famous grafitti artist Banksy has filed a cybersquatting complaint against the owner of Banksy.com. [Update: the filing may have been from an imposter.] The case was filed by Banksy Inc (C/O Pest Control Office Limited). Pest Control Office is essentially an agent and certification group for Banksy’s work. It is currently trying to get a U.S. trademark for Banksy. If you go to Banksy.com right now, you’ll find a site about ... read more ...
Tue 14th October 2014
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31 important domain sales from NameJet - Joseph Peterson reviews notable domain name sales at NameJet last month. During September, NameJet closed 80 domain sales at or above $2,000  – down slightly from August’s spike of 95 but consistent with May (76), June (69), and July (82). Continuing my experiment from last month’s article, I’ll be using a “compare contrast” format to pair off domains according to price. Just maybe, that will shed some light on market value, branding or investment strategy. But ... read more ...
 
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How is this not retreat domain name hijacking? - Domain was allegedly registered well before company started using name. National Arbitration Forum panelist Dennis A. Foster has turned in a UDRP decision in favor of the respondent for the domain name IAFT.com. The case was filed by International Academy of Film and Television (IAFT International LLC), and the case was dead on arrival — at least based on the facts presented in the case. IAFT claims to have started using IAFT in 2003, three years after the owner ... read more ...
Mon 13th October 2014
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Which ICANN sessions domainers should attend - A quick look at relevant sessions at this week’s ICANN conference. ICANN 51 formally kicks off today in Los Angeles. There are a lot of domain name investors in attendance, so I created a quick guide to sessions that might be interesting to them. Even if you aren’t in L.A., ICANN has excellent online participation tools that make it almost easier to attend virtually than in person. Here are my picks. Monday October 13 Welcome Ceremony (8:30 to 10:00, all times ... read more ...
 
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Domain Name Wire Podcast #2: Tips to quarrel domain burglary and Howard Neu talks TRAFFIC - Listen to Domain Name Wire Podcast #2. It’s Monday, and that means it’s Podcast Day! This week’s Domain Name Wire Podcast includes the latest domain name industry news, plus 5 tips to make sure you don’t become a domain name theft victim. I also chat with Howard Neu, who co-founded the TRAFFIC conference with Rick Schwartz. Howard discusses the upcoming show (including why it’s scheduled on Halloween and what’s new this time) as well as the future of ... read more ...
 
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Heavenly.coffee is Donuts’ 1 Millionth domain name registration - Donuts hits milestone with a domain name registration that’s almost too fitting to be true. How about some coffee with those Donuts?Earlier this month I wrote about how Donuts was tracking to cross the million domain mark in October. It hit that milestone yesterday. Fittingly for a registry called Donuts, the milestone registration was Heavenly.coffee. Even if every domain was priced at just $15 wholesale, that means the company has grossed $15 million this year. ... read more ...
 
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TopCoin launches as cryptocurrency for new TLDs - TopCoin enables registries to pass rebate credits directly to registrants. I caught up with Michael Blend last night here in Los Angeles. Blend sold his company to Demand Media and was then an executive with the company for many years. He’s currently working on a number of startups, and one of these is applicable to the domain name industry: TopCoin. It’s billed as a cryptocurrency for digital goods. For now, you can think of it as a rewards program for buyers ... read more ...
Sat 11th October 2014
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October ICANN TLD auctions cringe to 3 after private deals - 10 contention sets settled at last minute, including three by Amazon.com. This month’s ICANN auctions of last resort for new to level domain names will settle just three contention sets, down from a schedule of 13 as of last month. The only three still on the schedule are .spot, .salon and .realty. Ten contention sets that were on the docket for resolution via ICANN auction this month have been settled: Amazon.com won .now, .deal and .save Donuts won .legal and ... read more ...
Fri 10th October 2014
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$1.25 million domain name Photo.com strike with UDRP - Case filed with World Intellectual Property Organization against Photo.com. The domain name Photo.com has been hit with a UDRP filing at World Intellectual Property Organization. According to a 2010 story at TheDomains, Moniker brokered the sale of this domain name back then for $1.25 million. The complainant is Fotocom Société Anonyme. I’m having trouble due to the language barrier, but it’s possible that this group is associated with the domain name Foto.com. ... read more ...
Thu 9th October 2014
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Last week’s finish user domain name sales - Athlon.com leads Sedo’s end user domain name sales. Sedo sold about $1.2 million worth of domain names last week, highlighted by the six figure sale of Athlon.com. Athlon.com is still in escrow, but I have a pretty good idea who the buyer is. One other sale was notable not because of the dollar value, but because the sale was a trademark-matching domain for a $14.6 billion publicly traded company. The end user list is below. (You can view previous lists like this ... read more ...
 
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Expired Domain Name Report: iWealth.com $12k and more - In a world of iPods and iPads, why iWealth.com is worth money requires little explanation. Bidding for that expired domain came in just shy of $12k last week at NameJet — with retirement planning and personal investing being its most obvious applications. I’m less persuaded that TranscendUSA.com was good value at $6.5k. Not to knock transcendence, but a “USA” suffix can feel tacked on. Usually it’s the mark of brands looking to cut corners on domain ... read more ...
 
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Big Apple’s new .NYC domain adds 16k registrations during launch to strike 27k - .NYC off to a solid start, especially given registration restrictions. .NYC had a strong first day yesterday thanks, in part, to lots of press and advertising. It would have been even stronger if people outside NYC could register domains. The overnight zone file shows about 27,000 .nyc domain names registered. This doesn’t include over 1,000 landrush domain name orders that are headed to auction. .NYC had over 10,000 domains grabbed in landrush. About 9,500 of these ... read more ...
 
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Moniker usually mislaid 17,506 .com domains to transfers in June - Customer losses stemming from botched transition was rather limited in first month. ICANN has just published the monthly registry reports for June, the month that Moniker switched to an entirely new platform. The switch caused numerous problems for Moniker and its customers. But it looks like — at least for the first month — the damage in terms of domain outflows was rather limited. Moniker lost 17,506 .com domain names to transfers out in June. Given that it ... read more ...
Wed 8th October 2014
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After scarcely a decade, .NYC finally gets the day - .NYC domain names available for registration today. The .NYC domain name goes into general availability for New Yorkers today after a long, citizen-initiated process. A Long Road In the middle of the last decade, a group of New Yorkers proposed the idea of creating a .NYC domain to the city government. The city council passed a resolution to assign resources for a .nyc bid in 2008 and issued a request for proposal to find a partner in 2009. The city select Neustar, ... read more ...
 
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Moniker’s transition-related confidence holes come to light - Moniker customer explains some of the security holes that may have led to his domains being stolen, including some introduced by the transition from the old Moniker system to a new platform. So it is sad to say goodbye to Moniker, and to witness the self-destruction of this company that played such a large role in the development of the domain industry. So writes Nat Cohen, long time domain name investor and owner of perhaps the best portfolio of three character domains ... read more ...
 
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See GoDaddy’s crafty .NYC boat ad - Barge message taunts neighbors across the Hudson. Earlier today I wrote about the highly anticipated launch of .NYC domain names. GoDaddy is promoting the domain name heavily around New York City, including a big ad on a barge being piloted on the Hudson River. Here are a couple photos of the barge, taunting New Jersey residents about how New York City has a domain name and they don’t. In fact, only people who live or own a business in New York City are eligible ... read more ...
Tue 7th October 2014
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Due industry is required before shopping glass domain names - Take these extra precautions when buying a valuable domain name. With news yesterday of more missing three letter domain names at a couple different domain registrars, now is a good time to remind people about due diligence when buying a domain name. This is especially important for “liquid” domain names like three letter domains. Three letter domains have a floor value at which they can be quickly sold to a ready market of buyers. This makes them a favorite of ... read more ...
 
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The repository attention has the possess Domain Registry of America - Tricky renewal notices get people to renew subscriptions through a third party. Remember Domain Registry of America, the group that tricked* people into renewing domain names at exorbitant prices? This type of scam didn’t start with the domain name industry, and it doesn’t end there, either. Apparently newspapers and magazines across the country are grappling with more than just falling advertising revenues. They’re dealing with an outfit sending misleading ... read more ...
 
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.Eco domain name applicant gets village status, .Gay and .Music don’t - .Eco applicant prevails with its own definition of the eco community; .gay and .music applicants don’t. Three more Community Priority Evaluation decisions for new top level domain names have been completed. .Eco applicant Big Room Inc has succeeded in getting community status by earning the minimum required 14 of 16 points. This means that applicants Donuts, Minds + Machines and Planet Dot Eco are no longer in the running for the domain name. dotgay llc failed with ... read more ...
Mon 6th October 2014
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Planet Fitness guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - …as the company wastes money with a reactive approach to intellectual property management. Planet Fitness, a chain of over 800 fitness clubs in the United States, has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking for its attempt to get the domain name judgmentfree.com. This is despite the domain name owner not even responding to the dispute. Planet Fitness uses the slogan “Judgement Free Zone” for its gyms. I assume that means you won’t be judged for ... read more ...
 
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.NYC one of 5 tip turn domains rising this week - .NYC launches this week and Donuts’ well runs dry. It’s time for the weekly overview of new top level domain names coming out this week. It will be brief, as just five are on the docket as best I can tell. But one of them is certainly big. Monday I think .Desi (definition) went live today. It’s hard to tell, though, since nic.desi has basically no information on it. Wednesday .NYC will launch to great fanfare on Wednesday. This is a big test for geographic ... read more ...