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 17th September 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
20 domain registrars pointer 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement - Most large domain name registrars have yet to sign the new agreement. Two months after the first five domain registrars signed the new 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement with ICANN, only 15 more have signed on. In fact, two of the registrars that were on the registrar negotiating team for the agreement have yet to sign on, according to the Internic list of domain registrars. Demand Media and Key Systems, both of which were at the negotiating table, haven’t ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Thought Convergence to launch domain name escrow use Agreed.com - Domain company ready to enter the domain escrow business. Thought Convergence, the company behind domain parking company TrafficZ and domain sales and parking platform Aftermarket.com, is getting ready to launch its own domain escrow service. The company, which tends to pick high quality domains for its new products, has named the new service Agreed. Naturally, you can find it online at agreed.com. Right now the site just has a basic “coming soon” page with this ... read more ...
Mon 16th September 2013
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How most will good keyword domain names sell for in new TLDs? - Supply and demand will push prices for good keyword second level domains down in alternate TLDs. Sales of premium domain names have been a revenue driver for top level domain registries as they’ve launched new domains in recent years. Will this be the case with new top level domain names that come out in the next year or two? I doubt it. It’s a simple supply and demand equation, and it’s the same reason that existing second level domain names in “second tier” ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain name Registry Lock by a numbers - Many important websites haven’t added Registry Lock to protect against hacks similar to what brought down NYTimes.com. Last month domain name registrar Melbourne IT was compromised, resulting in the hack of NYTimes.com’s nameserver record. The New York Times’ problem could have been prevented had the company paid a little extra for Verisign’s Registry Lock service. Registry Lock adds another layer of protection against unauthorized domain name transfers and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Intranet.com domain name sells for $160,000 - Dave Evanson brokers sale of Intranet.com to unknown buyer. Sedo has brokered the sale of domain name Intranet.com for $160,000. Sedo broker Dave Evanson announced the news on Twitter this morning: The domain was registered way back in 1992. For a long time it was owned by IntraNet Worldwide, Inc, which has been part of payments company ACI Worldwide since 1998. More recently, the whois record has been protected by a whois privacy service and the domain has resolved ... read more ...
 
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Stolen domain name recovered by UDRP - Education group that manages Thompson Island gets its domain name back. Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center has recovered the domain name ThompsonIsland.org through a UDRP case. The group alleges that the domain name was stolen from its Network Solutions account. According to documents provided to the UDRP panel, it appears that an unauthorized person changed the password on the complainant’s registrar account as well as the challenge questions used ... read more ...
 
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Interisle cashes in as new TLD hopefuls compensate for some-more data - New TLD applicants turn to Interisle for more data in effort to avoid more delays. Interisle Consulting Group dropped a bombshell on new top level domain name applicants when it submitted its 197 page report to ICANN about name collisions and new top level domain names. As a result of the report, about 20% of applied-for strings were grouped into an “uncalculated risk” pool, which means that they could face three to six months of delays as ICANN further studies ... read more ...
Fri 13th September 2013
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How to send your domains to “for sale only” landers during DNS - More interested in selling your domains than earning PPC income? Here’s how to send domain names to sales only landers at DNS. A lot of domainers have asked domain parking companies and marketplaces to offer landing pages dedicated solely to selling domain names — not generating revenue from PPC. There are a number of reasons you might want to do this for a domain name. An obvious one is that you think a sales-focused lander will generate more leads for the domain ... read more ...
 
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9 String Confusion Objections dismissed, Commercial Connect loses 8 - .Shop applicant Commercial Connect is the big loser in the latest batch of String Confusion Objections. After a long drought, International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) has posted an updated list of String Confusion Objection decisions. Today’s list includes nine more determinations, all found in favor of the applicant for the domains. First, Verisign lost its objection to Donuts’ application for .network. Verisign argued that it was too similar to .net. The ... read more ...
Thu 12th September 2013
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An overview of a Seattle domain name circuit - Last week I visited the many domain name companies that call Seattle home. Seattle is home to a large (and growing) number of domain name companies.Last month I took my annual family “escape the Texas heat” vacation to Seattle. I didn’t get the chance to visit any of the domain companies in the area while I was there, so last week I took a return trip to Seattle to rectify that. The collection of domain name companies in Seattle is large and growing. This is ... read more ...
 
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Hilco Streambank offered DL.com, Row.com, and over 2,000 Foreclosure domain names - Bankruptcies behind a number of domain names hitting the market. Intellectual Property sales company Hilco Streambank is holding two more domain name sales that might interest domain investors. The company will hold an auction October 14-17 that includes a handful of high value domain names including the two letter DL.com and three letter Row.com domain names. DL.com was used by law firm Dewey LeBoeuf, which is now in bankruptcy. Row.com is registered to Talei LLC ... read more ...
 
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Indian wiring tradesman Croma guilty of retreat domain name hijacking - Croma went after a domain registered a decade before its existence. Infiniti Retail Ltd., a TaTa company that runs the Indian electronics chain Croma, has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. The company, which operates at CromaRetail.com, filed a UDRP to get the domain name Croma.com. It didn’t start using the Croma brand until 2006, which is a full decade after the owner of Croma.com registered the domain name. Croma.com had been in use to promote ... read more ...
 
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Epik files obvious covering domain leasing and practical currencies for domain names - Patent application describes a virtual currency that may offer tax benefits and ways to improve domain name leasing. Epik founder Rob Monster and SVP John Lawler have filed a patent application titled “System and Method for Domain Leasing, Acquisition and Development Incorporating a Virtual Currency Platform”. You may recall that Epik started a virtual currency called Epik Bucks. These could be used to buy domain names, purchase web design packages, and other ... read more ...
 
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Architelos’ obvious focus for domain abuse monitoring complement published - Patent discloses system for monitoring and handling domain name abuse. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today published a patent application (pdf) for Architelos‘ NameSentry domain abuse protection system. The patent application is officially titled “Managing Domain Name Abuse” and was filed in March 2012. Architelos’ NameSentry is a system that helps domain registries and registrars detect and mitigate domain name abuse. As described in the patent – ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
String difficulty objections grub to a halt - No string confusion objection decisions have been published since August 28. Has the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) ceased publishing results from string confusion objections in the wake of contradictory decisions? It sure seems that way. The group had been on a roll publishing decisions. It published a number of August 26. Two days later it published even more decisions. Then on August 29 it published an updated decision list in which the only ... read more ...
Wed 11th September 2013
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Typosquatting domain liberation organisation CitizenHawk acquired - CitizenHawk acquired by legal and brand services firm. Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services (CLS) has acquired CitizenHawk, Inc., a company that helps companies protect their brands in domain names. CitizenHawk is primarily a typosquatting recovery firm. It helps companies obtain typos of their domain names, often times ones that are held by cybersquatters. Although its business model has shifted over the years, it primarily acquires typos with no upfront cost ... read more ...
 
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Name.space files Opening Brief in interest of new TLD lawsuit - Company claims new TLD program is a conspiracy to enrich a select few and that ICANN is violating antitrust laws. Name.space has filed its opening brief in an appeal of a lawsuit it brought against ICANN last year. Name.space operates an “alternative root” whereby certain internet users can access domain names such as .online and .blog. It applied to have 118 of its alt-root domain names become part of the official root during ICANN’s 2000 “proof of concept ... read more ...
 
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17 finish user domain name sales - A law firm, casino owner, and bank bought domain names through Afternic last week. Afternic sold $968,810 worth of domain names last week. Here are 17 domain names that sold to end users. Online car rental company Booking Group bought CarRentalNews.com for $3,000. Designer accessories store Electric, which uses the domain ElectricVisual.com, bought ElectricCalifornia.com for $5,000. The law firm Driggs, Bills Day PC bought PersonalInjuryAdvocates.com for $4,288. Athens ... read more ...
 
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ccTLD owners supplement .com in this week’s Sedo finish user sales list - Country code domain name owners buy the matching .com on this week’s Sedo end user sales list. A good number of end user domain purchases at Sedo and Afternic each week are made by companies that own the same second level domain under a different top level domain. That’s particularly the case with ccTLD owners. This week’s list has a few examples. On the flip side, it also includes examples of companies that own a .com buying a matching ccTLD. MobileHelp.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Whoops! New TLD auction lawyers also representing Name.space in fit to hindrance program - Morrison Foerster has worked on private TLD auctions while also representing name.space in its lawsuit against the new TLD program. Earlier today I wrote about name.space’s opening brief in its appeal to a lawsuit it filed against ICANN last year. Name.space, which runs an alternate root with many domain names that are identical to ones being applied for in the new top level domain program, sued ICANN last year and asked the court to halt the new top level domain ... read more ...
Tue 10th September 2013
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Companies censor their identities in genuine estate transactions, too - Companies don’t want property sellers to know who they are – both online and offline. When a domain investor receives an offer, they usually try to figure out who is making it. A big company might be able to pay more. That’s why companies often try to shield themselves using a third party broker or shell company. This game of shielding your identity didn’t start with domain names. It has long been common in physical real estate transactions. I was reminded ... read more ...
 
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Archeo rigourously launches domain name marketplace - Marchex spin-off is open for business. Archeo, which is being spun off from Marchex, formally launched its domain name marketplace to the public today. The site went live last month. The marketplace at ArcheoDomains.com features over 200,000 domain names, many of which were part of the $164 million acquisition of Yun Ye’s portfolio in 2005. Last week I had a chance to visit Archeo’s office in Seattle and meet some of the people that will drive the spin-off. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
First village conflict decisions: .Architect conflict prevails, .Fly and .Gay fail - ICC issues first three community objection decisions. More controversy about new top level domain names is coming as the first community objection decisions have been released by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The International Union of Architects was successful in its objection to Donuts’ application for .architect. The group is backing a community application filed by Starting Dot for .archi. In a statement, Donuts spokesperson Mason Cole said “We ... read more ...
 
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Key takeaways from .Architect village conflict decision - The .Architect objection had some unique characteristics, but the panelist’s decision may concern other applicants. The International Chamber of Commerce today issued its decision (pdf) on an objection to Donuts’ application for the .architect top level domain name. The panelist found in favor of the objector, International Union of Architects (UIA), which is backing a rival application for .archi. As we found with string similarity objections, different panelists ... read more ...
Mon 9th September 2013
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Is a subsequent Microsoft Surface a Remix? - Microsoft registers Surface Remix domain names. I have to admit I haven’t paid much attention to Microsoft’s tablets. I always see the name Microsoft Surface RT and think “ReTweet”. But Microsoft registered a few domain names last week that might tip off the name of its next Surface tablet – or at least something related to it. The company registered SurfaceRemix.com and .net/.org as well as SurfaceRemixProject.com and .net/.org. Had the company just registered ... read more ...