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 20th March 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Richard Branson is initial URS loser - Panel denies claim to Branson.guru. Last month I wrote about how billionaire Richard Branson had filed some cases under the new Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) policy to suspend domains that cybersquatted his name and brands. One case that hadn’t been filed at the time was for Branson.guru. A decision has been handed down and Branson has the distinction of being the first person to lose a URS case. Branson’s lawyers (actual counsel for his company Virgin) made ... read more ...
Wed 19th March 2014
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Chinese supervision buys 20,000 new IDN domain names - TLD Registry inks deal with Chinese government for over 10,000 domains in each of its new TLDs. Pictured: Director LI Qingfeng, The Service Development Center of SCOPSR (China’s own registrar) and Arto ISOKOSKI, CEO, TLD Registry Ltd.TLD Registry Ltd, which is launching the new top level domain names Dot Chinese Online (.在线) and Dot Chinese Website (.中文网), has inked a deal with the Chinese central government’s own registrar for 10,226 domain names in ... read more ...
 
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Registrar suspends all domain names eliminated from consummated registrar - EnCirca finds that domains were used for nefarious purposes. ICANN terminated the accreditation of domain name registrar ABSYSTEMS INC (dba yournamemonkey.com) in December for multiple contract breaches. ICANN transferred the domain names to another registrar as ICANN does in cases of a de-accreditation. In this case, EnCirca was the (not so) lucky registrar. EnCirca got more than it bargained for. ICANN informed EnCirca that ABSYSTEMS had approximately 700-800 names, ... read more ...
 
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.Berlin scores 30,000+ registrations in good news for city TLDs - City domain name rockets out of the starting gate. The .Berlin top level domain name has quickly racked up over 30,000 domain name registrations according to the latest published zone file. A lot of domain industry insiders think .city domain names have some of the best potential among new TLDs, and .Berlin’s quick start is certainly a positive sign. Perhaps encouraged by the success of Germany’s country code domain name .de, applicants applied for eight city ... read more ...
 
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NTIA: U.S. won’t desert a purpose in a internet until it’s confident with a alternative - Strickling makes it clear that IANA contract won’t be transitioned until it is happy with the alternative. Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information Lawrence E. Strickling penned a blog post today to try to clarify some of the misinformation coming out of last week’s announcement of transitioning the IANA functions. In his post, Strickling makes is clear that the NTIA will only transition these functions if it’s satisfied with the alternative that ... read more ...
 
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Quebec’s supervision loses domain brawl over Quebec.com - UDRP must have been lost in translation. The Government of Quebec has lost a UDRP it filed against the domain name Quebec.com. This was a no brainer case. The three person panel found that domain owner Anything.com has rights or legitimate interests in the domain and did not register it in bad faith. Instead, the registrant registered it and parked it showing ads related to the city of Quebec. While the panel doesn’t specifically find laches, it questions why it ... read more ...
 
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Donuts adds another 20,000 registrations with subsequent 6 domains - Donuts next six domains launch and 11 is picking up steam thanks to cut rate pricing. Another five six of Donuts domain names reverted to “regular” pricing today and they picked up about 20,000 registrations in the first hours, according to updated stats on nTLDStats.com. The six domain names and their net adds are: company 6,493 center 5,599 systems 3,041 academy 2,793 management 2,252 computer 1,313 .Academy and .Computer appear to be in Donuts’ middle price ... read more ...
Tue 18th March 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Menu picks adult over 1,500 registrations in initial day - .Menu enters general availability with over 1,500 registrations. The .menu domain name entered general availability yesterday and got over 1,500 new registrations shortly after GA started, according to zone file data. Here are some of the types of domain names that were registered. Restaurant Brands Most of the restaurant names I found were smaller restaurants. I didn’t find a lot of big restaurant brands. There are some, of course: Yum Brands got PizzaHut.menu, ... read more ...
 
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Panel won’t find Reverse Domain Name Hijacking due to whois privacy - UDRP panelist cites whois privacy as reason for not finding RDNH. A single member National Arbitration Forum panel has found in favor of the owner of Finell.com, but declined to find reverse domain name hijacking because the owner used a whois privacy service. The UDRP complaint was brought by Finell Co., LLC, which has its origins around 2011. Architect Filip Finell registered Finell.com in 2000 and started using it to promote his architecture firm. He later took ... read more ...
 
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The Birth Pangs of new tip turn domain names - The launch of new domain names has been anything but smooth. Confusion. Frustration. Incompetence. That’s how I’d sum up the launch of new TLDs so far. I’ve already written about some of the challenges of new TLD launches to date. How they’re coming out with a whimper. How domain name registrars are making it difficult to register these new domain names. Kevin Murphy over at Domain Incite has more examples today in a post titled “Registrars screwing up new ... read more ...
 
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55 new TLDs ask grant from Registry Code of Conduct - 55 .brand application owners request exemptions. Today ICANN posted 55 requests made by new TLD applicants for an exemption from the Registry Code of Conduct. The Registry Code of Conduct for new TLDs includes provisions related to showing preference to different registrars, registering domains in the registry’s own right, frontrunning, and control between an owned registry and registrar. The 55 requests were made by companies wishing to operate their domains as ... read more ...
 
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First 4 Community Priority Evaluations Fail: .Taxi, Tennis, .MLS, .Immo - Four “community” applicants fail in bids to quash competition. ICANN has published the results of the first four decided Community Priority Evaluations (CPE) for new top level domain names. All four failed to pass. Applicants that self-selected themselves as “community” applicants for top level domain names can go through this process to see if they qualify. If they do qualify as a community under the requirements, they will effectively kill off all non-community ... read more ...
Mon 17th March 2014
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Verisign tells markets NTIA news doesn’t impact the .com agreement while batch drops - Verisign points out that NTIA announcement has nothing to do with .com, but at least one analyst has downgraded the stock due to uncertainty. Verisign issued a press release this morning reminding investors that Friday’s big news about the U.S. government transitioning internet responsibilities does not affect its lucrative contract to run the .com domain name registry. Verisign shares were down about 6% in the first few minutes of trading today. Last Friday National ... read more ...
 
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6 new TLDs have eclipsed a 10,000 registration milestone - .Directory enters the club as I become more sure of my forecast for new TLD registration volumes. Of the dozens of new top level domain names to enter general availability so far, six have now topped 10,000 registrations based on zone file records. .Directory is the most recent entrant in this club after hitting the milestone within the past few days. Other domains with over 10,000 registrations include .guru, .photography, .tips, .today and .technology. There are ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
RrSG provides justification to behind adult claims done opposite Minds + Machines - Communication shows that Web.com didn’t receive contract until after reservation program was live. Last month I wrote that ICANN’s Registrar Stakeholder Group (RrSG) was questioning if Top Level Domain Holdings/Minds + Machines’ “Priority Registration System” complied with ICANN contracts. Issues around registry and registrar cross ownership and making sure registries provide equal opportunity to unaffiliated registrars are sure to pop up in coming years. ... read more ...
 
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After winning UDRP, Denver Nuggets let DenverNuggets.com domain name expire - Denver’s NBA team fought hard for domain name but then dropped the ball. After going through the effort to win the domain name DenverNuggets.com in a UDRP, the NBA team has failed to renew the domain name. It now points to an expired domain parked page including ads for Denver Nuggets tickets. [Update: the Nuggets have renewed the domain name.] The basketball team won a UDRP for the domain name in 2009, but the history of the domain name since then is a bit confusing. ... read more ...
Sun 16th March 2014
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A initial demeanour during Frank Schilling’s new domain name registrar - Uniregistry (the registrar) will roll out to the public on Monday. Frank Schilling’s domain name registrar Uniregistry is due to launch this week (likely Monday) and Domain Name Wire took an early look over the weekend. Although officially named Uniregistrar with ICANN, the registrar will be known as Uniregistry to customers. That’s the same name as the registry that Schilling is using to offer potentially dozens of new top level domain names. The registrar will ... read more ...
Fri 14th March 2014
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16 some-more new tip turn domain names accessible subsequent week - 16 domain names enter landrush or general availability next week. 16 more new top level domain names will hit the market next week in one form or another. Monday, March 17 .CEO kicks off its landrush on Monday. It will last for one week. .Menu opens general availability. Tuesday, March 18 The .berlin domain name is available starting Tuesday. Another geo TLD, .kiwi, enters its “Early Bird” phase. This is just a more marketing friendly name for “Landrush”. Wednesday, ... read more ...
 
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This time it’s real: U.S. prepared to give adult control over pivotal internet functions - Government ready to relinquish control over IANA contract. In 2009 the U.S Government agreed to the “Affirmation of Commitments” with ICANN to set if free from U.S. control. The press ate it up, assuming that it meant the U.S. had given up control of the internet. It hadn’t. The key contract that the U.S. government controls for the internet’s naming system is actually the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) contract, which includes managing the root ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
WSJ: GoDaddy prepping for Initial Public Offering - WSJ reports that GoDaddy is interviewing bankers. It’s no secret that the next step for domain name registrar and webhosting company GoDaddy is an initial public offering. But now we have a bit more concrete understanding of where the company is the process. The Wall Street Journal reported this afternoon that GoDaddy is in the process of interviewing bankers to take it public. This may be a controlled leak to pique interest by bankers, although I imagine they’ve ... read more ...
Thu 13th March 2014
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Patient.com domain name strike with UDRP - UK health software company claims that owner of Patient.com is cybersquatting. Egton Medical Information Systems Limited, an electronic healthcare records software company, has filed a UDRP against the domain name Patient.com. The domain name was registered in 1997 but was acquired at Sedo in 2012, according to historical whois records. I don’t believe the sale was ever made public. The domain name currently resolves to a “coming soon” page. Egton owns a consumer ... read more ...
 
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See who purebred 1,659 .domains domain names in initial hours - A look at registrants of .domains domain names. Individuals and companies registered 1,659 .domains domain names in the first hours after the domain entered regular-price general availability yesterday. I’d group the purchases in five groups: Brands: domain name brands were on top of this release, of course. Many of them got the domains through sunrise as well. Sedo picked up sedo.domains while competitor Afternic has a Domain Protected Marks List block on “Afternic”. ... read more ...
Wed 12th March 2014
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New York male might have lucked out with Apple CarPlay - New York registered CarPlay.com domain name in 2000. Nearly 14 years ago New Yorker Thomas Fitzgibbon registered the domain name CarPlay.com. “I just thought cars are going to be automated in the future, and we’re getting to the point where that’s happening today,” he explained to Domain Name Wire. “I figured people would be playing games in and around their cars.” Fitzgibbon was surprised to wake up to the news last week that Apple was launching a new ... read more ...
 
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Grumpy a Cat and Rob Corddry give Name.com a High Five - Celebrities give Name.com a high five. Name.com did a rather clever marketing gimmick during SXSW Interactive in Austin. It sent one of its customer service reps to the city as “High Five Guy”. For every high five he got (10,000) the company donated 5 cents to an Austin charity. It’s difficult to attract attention during the noise of SXSW, but High Five Guy appears to have done the trick. The charity element certainly didn’t hurt. High Five guy got high fives ... read more ...
 
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Obama: we don’t go to .com and .net sites - Obama discusses top level domain names in humor video. As of this morning Barrack Obama’s appearance on Funny or Die’s Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis has been viewed a whopping 12 million times. Obama’s appearance on the show was designed to boost awareness of his healthcare act among younger people, and it may be working. If you haven’t seen the video yet (embedded below), you may get a kick out of a brief mention of top level domain names. Here’s ... read more ...