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 13th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Frank Schilling’s Toilet Paper exam and 2 other tests for new TLDs - Three tests for new top level domain names. Earlier this week, Frank Schilling introduced* one of Frank’s laws about new top level domain names: By this rule, I find only a few of Frank’s own TLDs are truly generic. It’s an interesting test for the generic nature of a top level domain. I’ve thought of a couple other “tests” that can be applied to new top level domain names in addition to Frank’s Toilet Paper Test. The Douche Test Would anyone other ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
IBM wins initial new tip turn domain URS case - Panel hands down decision within one week. IBM has won the first ever Uniform Rapid Suspension case for new top level domain names. A National Arbitration Forum panelist ruled in the company’s favor in a dispute over IBM.guru and IBM.ventures. Both domain names will be suspended but not transferred to IBM. IBM can opt to register them when they expire or file a UDRP to get the domain names. IBM has belatedly signed up for Donuts’ Domains Protected Marks List, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registrars adjust registration prices on some of Donuts’ domain names - Let the testing begin… They haven’t been available for long, but already we’re seeing varying registration fees for Donuts’ domain names. Domain name registrar GoDaddy is charging lower annual registration fees for some of the latest new top level domain name offered by Donuts — while charging a premium for others. Pricing for many of the “second round” Donuts domains (e.g. .photography) as well as pre-orders for some of the to-be-released domains (e.g. ... read more ...
Wed 12th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN plays “make believe” with fibre difficulty examination process - ICANN pretends other inconsistencies don’t exist so it can resolve two of the most embarrassing ones. Yesterday ICANN posted a proposal for dealing with “perceived inconsistencies” in String Confusion Objections filed over new top level domain names. The plan would deal with two cases in which different panels came to different conclusions on objections filed against the same exact strings: .cam/.com and .cars/.car. The inconsistencies in string confusion objections ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Web and .Webs: “There can be usually one” - VistaPrint will have to duke it out with Web.com if it wants the .webs brand TLd. The International Centre for Dispute Resolution has handed in its final determination for the controversial String Confusion Objection process. In this case, Web.com won against Vistaprint’s two applications for .webs. As a result, .webs will now be in a contention set with Web.com’s application for .web. If Vistaprint wins the contention set, then .web–often pointed out as the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
30 finish user domain name sales adult to $150,000 - $150,000 purchase among end user domain name transactions at Sedo last week. Sedo sold $1.7 million worth of domain names last week. Here’s a look at some of the domain names that were purchased by end users. (See more end user reports here.) DreamExchange.com $28,500 – advertising company D Major Nxt.org 10,000 EUR – a German group called “The NXT community” Buzzfeed.fr 1,500 EUR – Viral news site Buzzfeed Obrien.co.uk 1,195 GBP – a guy with the last ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BusinessForSale.com survives UDRP - BusinessESforSale.com (plural) failed to show it had trademark rights in its descriptive name. Although there are many benefits to using a good descriptive domain name, there’s also a drawback: other people can use similar domains, too. That’s the case with BusinessESforSale.com, which just lost a UDRP against the owner of BusinessforSale.com. The complainant failed to show that the disputed domain name was confusingly similar to a trademark in which it has rights ... read more ...
Tue 11th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Reminder: a tip turn domain name matters in a UDRP - Panels will not always ignore the top level domain name in UDRP cases. With niche top level domain names like .clothing and .plumbing now on the market, I’d like to clear up a common misconception about UDRP and whether the top level domain name should be ignored in such disputes. Many people believe that the top level domain name is ignored by panels when it comes to confusing similarity. In other words, if the domain at issue is trademark.com, the panel will say ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Check out what this association did with the .Co domain name - It’s not .com. Every once in a while I see a .co domain name around town. One of my favorites is mow.co, which is used by a local lawn mowing service. I was flipping through the Angie’s List magazine last night and saw an ad for a local window washing company. Something about the domain name looked funny: I’ve never seen that before. They use a .co domain name, and to make it clear to readers that it’s .co and not .com, they put an / through an “m” next ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New tip turn domain name lawsuit discharged though leaves doorway open for ACPA for TLDs - Judge grants motion to dismiss top level domain dispute. A federal district judge has dismissed (pdf) a lawsuit brought by Del Monte International against Del Monte Corporation over the top level domain name .delmonte. In doing so, the court also left the door open on the possibility of the Anti-cybersquatting Protection Act (ACPA) being applied to new top level domain names. Here’s the background: Del Monte International (DMI), a licensee of the Del Monte brand ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Club binds winter domain name auction on Sedo - New TLD to hold auction during its sunrise period. New top level domain name .club is holding its first domain name auction on Sedo. The auction features “winter sports” domain names (really it’s Olympic themed, but there are trademark issues with that) including sochi.club, snowboard.club, skate.club, icehockey.club and bobsled.club. The trademark sunrise for .club just began and runs through March 29. If you win a domain name in the auction that is later claimed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Video Game attention fails to kick Amazon.com’s .Game - No cheat codes available for community objection. The Entertainment Software Association, a U.S. industry group for the video game industry, has failed to quash Amazon.com’s application to run the .game top level domain name. ESA filed a community objection against Amazon’s application. There are six applicants for .game, but ESA only went after Amazon.com’s application because it proposes operating the domain as a “closed” registry. This means other companies ... read more ...
Mon 10th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How common difference like Pizza, Money, and Shopping finished adult in a Trademark Clearinghouse for new TLDs - The Trademark Clearinghouse for new TLDs is giving some people first dibs on domains like realestate.guru and pizza.restaurant. The .info domain name got seriously gamed when it had its trademark sunrise period in 2001. There was no pre-verification mechanism to determine if trademarks used to claim a .info domain met requirements. As a result, 20,000 sunrise registrations were later deemed invalid. Many more were accepted under rather lax standards. The same thing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domain names Microsoft, Allstate, and others bought - Big companies made domain name purchases last week. Microsoft and Allstate were among the end users that bought domain names that were reported on Sedo’s sales list last week. Here are some of the end user sales. (You can see previous end user sales reports here.) Sandwich.co $18,000 – Sandwich Video, which produces videos for tech products. RentalStars.com $1,995 – a Mark Monitor clients HappyDeal.ch 850 EUR – Happy Deal Sàrl. I can’t find much about the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Universal Postal Union loses objections to .mail tip turn domain name - Group that runs .post fails to end bids for .mail top level domain name. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has lost community objections against five applications for the .mail top level domain name. UPU filed objections against all five active applicants for .mail, including Amazon.com, Google, Donuts, WhitePages TLD and GMO Registry. The objections on community grounds seemed like quite a stretch, although not as ridiculous as the United States Postal Service’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company uses UDRP to go after passed man’s domain name - French publication files publication to try to get domain name from deceased man. Société Du Figaro S.A. of Paris, France, a news publication, has lost a UDRP it filed against a dead man. The group filed the UDRP against the domain name figaro.tv. The domain name is registered to Stefan Blumtritt of “Cut Company” in Germany. Société Du Figaro S.A. pointed out to the panel that the domain name owner apparently died last year. This was certainly helpful information ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rightside Registry offers the possess Domain Protected Marks List - Service for blocking trademark domain names is very similar to Donuts’. Rightside Registry announced its own version of the Domain Protected Marks List (DPML) service last week. With the service, trademark owners can block their marks from being registered as a second level domain name in any of the top level domain names Rightside runs. If the name and the concept sound very familiar to Donuts’ DPML, that’s because Rightside Registry also runs the backend technical ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yes, one minute domain names competence be value reduction than $1,000 - Supply and demand and new TLDs…what once was scarce is no longer. Over the weekend there was quite a hubbub over at DomainInvesting.com about the availability of single letter domain names in new top level domain names. In short: they are available, albeit at a premium annual registration fee. Although prices seemed to fluctuate over the weekend, it seems that the standard price is $400. Since you have to pay this fee each year, the domains aren’t actually $400 ... read more ...
Fri 7th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign: we’re not fearful of new TLDs, and IDN transliterations will be delayed - A defense of .com’s staying power and bad news for IDN.com investors. On its investor conference call yesterday afternoon, Verisign CEO James Bidzos explained why he isn’t afraid of new top level domain names. Also, in a blow to IDN.com investors, the company said it will take a longer for them to hit the market than many are hoping for. New TLDs? We’re not afraid of those! Despite Verisign’s never-ending tactics to delay new top level domain names, Bidzos ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BidPal cybersquatting lawsuit is possibly dubious or feeble researched. You decide. - Lawsuit falsely presumes domain owner is offering to sell the domains. And that’s just part of the problem. In December I wrote about a UDRP for BidPal.com filed by BidPal, Inc. I noted that the UDRP decision against the complainant was probably correct, but that BidPal’s lawyer screwed up the research as well. BidPal, Inc. has now filed a federal lawsuit(pdf) to get the domain name as well as “BidPal” in several other extensions. It also found itself a new ... read more ...
Thu 6th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google’s .search tip turn domain name focus survives objections - Two objections against .search domain name fail. Google’s bid to run the .search top level domain name has survived community objections brought by competition groups. The objections were brought by FairSearch and Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, both organizations made up of Google competitors. This is FairSearch’s third failed objection against Google. It also objected to .fly and .map. The panelist in both .search objections granted that both ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MarkMonitor allegedly hacked by Syrian Electronic Army - Group claims to hack leading brand management registrar and change Facebook’s whois, but Registry Lock thwarts its attempt to hijack Facebook.com nameservers. The Syrian Electronic Army claims it has hacked into the systems of MarkMonitor, the domain name registrar for many of the world’s biggest brands. It has a screenshot to prove it, too: A twitter account purporting to be that of the SEA also posted a link to a Facebook.com whois record showing the the Syrian ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
U.S. Government weighs in on .wine debate - U.S. government advises against giving additional protections to second level .wine and .vin domain names. Lawrence Strickling, Administrator of the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), has sent a letter to ICANN regarding additional protections for .wine and .vin domain names. Many governments have asked for additional safeguards around these domain names with protection for geographic names at the second level. Strickling writes ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
IBM files initial Uniform Rapid Suspension box for new TLDs - Company wants IBM.guru and IBM.ventures domain names suspended. IBM has filed what I believe is the first dispute under Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) for new top level domain names. The company filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum for the domain names ibm.guru and ibm.ventures. Both domains were registered on January 31 at a premium during the Early Access Program phase of the .guru and .ventures domain launches. The domains were registered with whois ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy starts regulating GoDaddy.uno domain name - Domain name forwards to .uno registration page. Domain name registrar GoDaddy has started using GoDaddy.uno, although perhaps not in the way the .uno registry intends for it to be used: The domain name merely forwards to GoDaddy’s .uno registration page, which is all in English except for .uno’s slogan. .Uno founder Shaul Jolles told Domain Name Wire last month that his goal is for .uno domain names to lead consumers to a separate Spanish language website for ... read more ...