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 29th October 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How a GoDaddy lead looks on DomainNameSales.com - I’ve received my first lead from DNS’ integration with GoDaddy. Here’s how it looks. Earlier this month I wrote about how DomainNameSales.com users can now syndicate their listings to GoDaddy.com and DomainTools in order to reach potential buyers. I recently received my first lead through syndication to GoDaddy, and here’s what it looked like in my DNS account: Now, there’s a bit of a catch with the GoDaddy integration. GoDaddy customers basically fill ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
dotCloud renames itself - …and that’s not a top level domain name. Technology company dotCloud has renamed itself Docker Inc., in a bit of news tangentially related to the domain name industry. Despite its name, the company has nothing to do with domain names. It created the Docker.io container technology for Linux Apps. Since that’s the crux of its business, it is renaming itself Docker. Although the name change had to do with a business model change, don’t you think the company’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Robin Wauters starting tech announcement during Tech.eu - Journalist who has covered the domain industry is starting a new technology publication. Robin Wauters is launching Tech.eu.Robin Wauters, a technology journalist who has frequently written about domain names, is starting a new online technology publication geared to Europe. It will launch at Tech.eu. Wauters previously wrote for The Next Web (where he was European Editor) and TechCrunch. Although just a small part of his writing, he sometimes covered domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BreatheAccord wins village conflict opposite .Breathe tip turn domain name - The following is a satirical response to news that SportAccord won a community objection against the .sport top level domain name. An International Chamber of Commerce panelist has upheld a community objection brought by BreatheAccord against dotBreathe LLC’s top level domain name application for .breathe. The decision by panelist Aru Kiddinme means that BreatheAccord, the only other applicant for .breathe, will now have a clear path to delegation for the domain ... read more ...
Mon 28th October 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign lays it all out in SEC filing - Risk disclosures heavily focused on new top level domain names. Verisign filed its 10-Q with the SEC last week. Comparing the risk factors section to the one in the previous quarter, it hasn’t changed much. Yet it’s interesting to see how changes at ICANN and new TLDs are finding their way into the risks section. Here are some highlights: the impact of decisions by distributors to offer competing or replacement products or modify or cease their marketing practices; This ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
eNom and Name.com pointer 2013 RAA - Demand Media gears up for new TLDs by signing new registrar agreement. Demand Media’s eNom and Name.com domain name registrars have signed the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), the company announced today. That makes four of the top 10 domain name registrars who have signed the new agreement. In addition to Demand Media, other top ten registrars that have signed the agreement include GoDaddy, 11, and Melbourne IT. Signing the new agreement is required ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media to call spinoff Rightside? - Me thinks that DemandMedia *may* have a problem. The guy that owns Rightside.com filed a trademark application more than a year before DemandMedia ,unless im missing something (like a brain ??); CTM-ONLINE – Detailed trade mark information [New basic search] [New advanced search] [Modify Search] [Refine search (Disabled)] [List of results] [Access to file] [Trade mark Detail (Disabled)] [Login to MYPAGE] [Back to MYPAGE (Disabled)] [Save search to my page (Disabled)] ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts successfully defends .reisen village objection - Panelist says German-speaking travelers qualify as a community, but objection fails on other grounds. New top level domain name applicant Donuts has successfully defended a community objection brought against its application to run the .reisen top level domain name. The German word reisen means “travels” or “journeys” in English. The objection was brought by the applicant for .reise, which means “traveling” in English. In coming to his decision, panelist ... read more ...
Fri 25th October 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Binary options site spends $99,000 to rebrand as Binary.com - Site spends nearly six figures to rebrand with better domain name. The binary options website formerly known as BetOnMarkets.com has purchased the domain name Binary.com and rebranded to the new domain name. The company’s CEO disclosed to Domain Name Wire that the purchase price was $99,000. The Binary.com domain name was previously owned by a technology company called Binary Systems. “After 14 years in business we decided to re-brand and acquire a category defining ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TLDH scores scarcely $5 million by losing dual domain name auctions - TLDH grows its cash pile thanks to losing two private auctions. Top Level Domain Holdings will add $4.81 million to its cash reserves as a result of losing private auctions for .website and .lawyer, the company announced today. $130,000 is from refunds for withdrawing its two applications, bringing the total auction proceeds down to $4.68 million. This doesn’t tell us too much about the winning bids for .website and .lawyer. There were three competitors for .website, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign creates obvious website, still doesn’t divulge the IP plans - Domain name registry shows off its patent portfolio, but still won’t say how it plans to make money from it. Verisign has created a website dedicated to its patents and released a whitepaper about its intellectual property – but still won’t say how it plans to monetize its IP portfolio. Yesterday the company formally unveiled VerisignPatents.com, a sort of patent marking site that lists all of its patents. For example, under the header “Domain Registry Services”, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Australian appetite association files UDRP opposite AGL.com - Company that uses AGL.com.au wants AGL.com. Australian natural gas and electricity company AGL Energy Limited has filed a UDRP against the three letter domain name AGL.com. The company uses the Australian country code domain name AGL.com.au for its website. AGL.com was originally registered in 1999. The current whois record has privacy, but taking a look at historical whois records from DomainTools, it is possible that the current owner acquired the domain name in ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Traffic steam alert: Healthcare.gov seekers group to Healthcare.com - Healthcare.com highlights a big challenge to developing a site on something other than .com. What’s one of the biggest challenges to creating a website on a non .com domain, at least in the United States? Many people looking for your site will inevitably type in .com instead. VentureBeat just wrote about the owners of HealthCare.com, who have been laughing all the way to the bank ever since the healthcare exchange launched on Healthcare.gov a few weeks ago. “We ... read more ...
Thu 24th October 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Applicant questions how .Cars collision can be cleared - One applicant for .cars has good questions about how exactly it can resolve its contention set. DERcars, an applicant for the .cars top level domain name, has filed a reconsideration request (pdf) with ICANN’s board after Google won a string confusion objection against the company’s .cars application. I wrote about the .cars case a few weeks ago, and said that ICANN would be forced to act in the wake of the string confusion objection. As one reader pointed out, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Four some-more new TLD row sets staid in private auctions - Donuts and Radix win auctions to settle four more new TLD contention sets. Innovative Auctions has helped settle four more top level domain name contention sets through its auction service. Donuts, by the far the largest applicant for new top level domains, won three auctions. It is now the sole applicant for .lawyer, .fish, and .discount. It beat Top Level Domain Holdings for .lawyer and beat Whatbox for .discount and .fish. (Interestingly, Whatbox’s application ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domain names T-mobile and 15 others bought final week - T-Mobile among domain buyers at Sedo last week. Here’s the latest end user sales report for Sedo sales. Notable buyers include T-mobile, and check out the price tag on CloudID.net. Secret.ly – $3,500 – A new start up called Whispr, LLC appears to be creating a sort of SnapChat for non-video messages. If you go to GoWhispr.com and wait a moment you can click a link that brings you to a page that says “Send beautiful, disappearing notes to your friends. Brighten ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domain names a Sacramento Kings and 20 others bought final week - NBA team among those that bought domain names last week. Afternic and GoDaddy sold $1.6 million worth of aftermarket domain names last week. Buyers included the Sacramento Kings NBA team, an office furniture etailer, and a gun manufacturer. Here are the sales in the format domain / price / buyer: ICTGlobal.net – $1,485 – tech company ICT Global Limited, which uses the domain ICTGlobal.nl. Another company owns the .com. Infologistics.com – $2,712 – Online ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Michael Berkens defends RoadWatch.com domain name in UDRP - Complainant loses all three prongs of case. Michael Berkens, who runs the domain name blog TheDomains.com, has successfully defended one of his company’s domain names in a UDRP. Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc filed a UDRP against the RoadWatch.com domain name, a domain that Berkens’ Worldwide Media has owned for about a decade. The complainant failed to even pass the first prong of a UDRP, that the domain name is similar to a mark in which the complainant has rights. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Panel dismisses UDRP formed mostly on laches - Panelist questions why complainant waited 13 years to file a domain name dispute. A National Arbitration Forum panel has dismissed a UDRP case, and it seems that the main reason was that the case was brought 13 years after the domain name was registered. The case was brought by Galaxy Catering, Inc., aka Big Texan Steak Ranch over the domain name TheBigTexan.com. The respondent registered the domain name in 2000, and panelist Nathalie Dreyfus questioned why, if it ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign’s .Com continues to grow, though faces headwinds - .Com/.net base up about 5% compared to last year, but new TLDs are on the horizon. Verisign reported earnings today as well as combined statistics for its .com and .net business. The company added 1.55 million net new names during the third quarter, ending the quarter with 125.9 million active domain names in the zone for .com and .net. That’s a 5% increase over the zone at the end of the third quarter in 2012. In Q2 2013 it added 1.22 million net new names, which ... read more ...
Wed 23rd October 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
3 things that provoke me about domain sales emails - Selling domain names via email is OK. Doing the following three things is not. If you own a handful of domains, you’ve surely received an email from someone offering to sell a domain name that is similar to one in your portfolio. This isn’t a problem in and of itself. I’ve occasionally done it. Elliot does a great job sending highly targeted emails. That said, there are three mistakes I think some people make when sending domain name sales emails. 1. Sending ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Shares of Top Level Domain Holdings spike - TLDH shares almost double in price. Shares in new top level domain name applicant Top Level Domain Holdings have double in recent days. The stock is currently trading on the London Stock Exchange for 10.25p. Shares were trading for less than 6.00p last Friday. It’s not immediately clear to me why the shares have jumped. It could be because a couple research reports for the stock came out this week. It could also be because new top level domain names, TLDH’s business, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
It’s Official: initial 4 new TLDs have been delegated - Four new top level domain names delegated. It’s October 23, 2013, and a few new top level domain name applicants can finally see the fruits of their many, many years of labor. ICANN announced today that four new top level domain names have been delegated. The four domains are شبكة. (web), .游戏 (games), .сайт (site), and .онлайн (online). The registry operators for these domains will soon put up a second level domain or two, which will be another ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
At TRAFFIC East, domainers finally incited a corner - Conference chatter changed from looking backward to looking forward. I was rather bummed after both of the major U.S. domain name conferences that took place in the first half of this year. I was bummed because people were just talking about the past. They were talking about the same stuff they’ve been talking about for the past three years. About falling parking revenues. About developing domains. Same old, same old. So that’s why this week at TRAFFIC in Ft. ... read more ...
Tue 22nd October 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The discuss over new TLDs during TRAFFIC - A lively debate – both on and off the stage. Yesterday at the TRAFFIC conference, domain investors Rick Schwartz and Lonnie Borck squared off against new TLD backers in a debate over what new TLDs will mean for the domain name industry. Tim Johnson of .kiwi, Jeffrey Sass of .Club, Frank Schilling of Uniregistry, and Monte Cahn of Right of the Dot sat opposite them. It was a lively conversation in which Schwartz started by clarifying that “I’m not against dot-whatever. ... read more ...