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.

Mon 9th September 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top 5 Domain Name Wire stories - The New York Times nameserver hijacking dominated last month’s news. Each month I post a list of the top news stories from the prior month. I’m a bit behind for August thanks to the U.S. holiday last week and a trip to visit domain companies in Seattle (more on that later). Here’s a list of the top five stories on Domain Name Wire last month: 1. ICANN officially kills Google’s plan for dotless .search top level domain name – Google’s hope for a dotless ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Amazon.com appeals stupid IDN fibre difficulty objection - Amazon asks ICANN to ignore bad string confusion objection decision. Amazon.com has appealed to ICANN’s board to overrule a decision in a string confusion objection that placed its new TLD application for .通販 in a contention set with .shop. Panelist Robert Nau ruled that .通販, which loosely translates to “online shopping”, would cause confusion amongst internet users when compared to .shop. It was truly an awful decision, and I can understand Amazon’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Merck KGaA sues Merk & Co. over .merck tip turn domain name - Company files two lawsuits in .merck dispute. Merck KGaA, one of the applicants for the .merck top level domain names, has filed two lawsuits against competing applicant Merck Co. According to a reconsideration request (pdf) Merck KGaA filed with ICANN, it has filed suit in District Court in Hamburg, Germany as well as in the United Kingdom. Merck Co was formerly a U.S. subsidiary of Merck KGaA that was confiscated by the US government during World War I and then ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
IG.com domain name partial of £4.0 million spending spree - Company bought IG.com and multiple ccTLDs. In May Domain Name Wire reported that financial firm and new top level domain name applicant IG Group had purchased the domain name IG.com. The purchase price was recently revealed (pdf) in the company’s annual report: £4.0 million. The report says that figure includes a number of domain names, including IG.co.uk and IG.de. DNJournal is reporting that the IG.com deal was co-brokered by Marcus Kocak and Tessa Holcomb of ... read more ...
Fri 6th September 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
“You gotta adore a O.co” - Stadium in Oakland still spreading awareness about .co domain names. Depending on who you ask, Overstock and the o.co domain name have either been the best thing or the worst thing to ever happen to .co domain names. Overstock is generally no longer using o.co here in the U.S., but it is using it internationally. There’s one exception to this stateside: the stadium in Oakland is still called the O.co Coliseum. That means .co gets lots of branding impressions every ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Jim Grace joins Team Internet - Domain monetization company hires Jim Grace as Director of Business Development. Team Internet AG, the company behind domain parking service ParkingCrew and zero click solution DNTX, has hired Jim Grace as Director of Business Development. Grace was most recently Director of Monetization for Domain Holdings. Prior to that he spent seven years at Oversee.net, parent company of domain parking company DomainSponsor. “[COO] Stefan [Wiegard] and I have known Jim for ... read more ...
Thu 5th September 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to write a minute to ICANN for limit impact - Get noticed! Get your opinion heard! Here’s a guide to sending a letter to ICANN. ICANN is somewhat unique in that it publishes much of the correspondence it receives. This means a lot of interest groups and stakeholders in the ICANN process tailor their letters for public consumption, not for ICANN. For this reason, I’ve put together a handy guide on how you can get the most out of your letter to ICANN. Address your letter to ICANN’s CEO, Board, and everyone ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy says It’s Go Time: new marketing, softened site - Company debuts new image and simplified user experience. GoDaddy rolled out a new marketing program and site enhancements today that are a big step forward from its old marketing approach. A couple years ago the company decided it needed to show that it was a serious tech company. The result was a sort of Jekyll Hyde in its TV commercials showing its tech side…right next to a scantily clad woman. But this time the company is dropping the provocative women altogether. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2 pointed changes to GoDaddy.com that are a large understanding to a domain industry - GoDaddy drops the .com and the ubiquitous drop down box for domain name search. GoDaddy rolled out a new marketing message and site enhancements overnight. There are two subtle changes to GoDaddy.com that are actually a big deal to the new top level domain name and domain investor communities. First, GoDaddy dropped the .com from its logo. It announced this change during a conference for new TLD applicants in March. Although it has been dropping .com from some of ... read more ...
Wed 4th September 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign lists the grievances with ICANN - VP of Policy cites six ways ICANN could be more accountable. During the ICANN meeting in Durban in July, Verisign VP of Policy Chuck Gomes complained that ICANN’s number one priority seemed to be “protecting ICANN the corporation”, and that this came before serving the public interest. ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade asked Gomes to provide a list of areas where ICANN could increase its accountability. Gomes has formally responded, citing six items. One of Gomes’ grievances ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A stellar week for finish user domain name sales during Sedo - OPS.com, DPC.com, and Fork.com all sold to end users. Sedo had a great past week for end user domain name sales. Several companies paid serious cash for good three letter domain names and category defining names. Two companies plunked down $100k each for domain names to top Sedo’s public list of sales. A Japanese company called Tibanne Co bought OPS.com for $100,000. Its website suggests that the company is still getting off the ground. Garry Chernoff sold the domain ... read more ...
Tue 3rd September 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CentralNic goes public: a demeanour during a numbers - CentralNic went public yesterday. Here are some of the company’s financials. Yesterday CentralNic, a company best known for offering third level domain names similar to ccTLDs, went public. The company plans to use proceeds for a number of purposes, including investing in some new TLD applications (e.g. funding auctions) and building a domain registrar business. Here’s a look at the some of the company’s numbers. Market cap at placing: £32.5 million2012 revenue: ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New lapsed domain name manners now in effect - Registrars must follow new guidelines for expired domain names. New expired domain name rules governing all gTLDs went into effect on Saturday. The Expired Registration Recovery Policy (ERRP) regulates how domain name registrars handle expiring domain names. For example, it requires them to send expiration notices at certain intervals. It also requires domain name registrars to interrupt the nameservers for most expired domain names to get the attention of the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy auctions sells 40,264 domain names in August - A good month for GoDaddy Auctions including a public six figure sale. GoDaddy Auctions sold 40,264 domain names last month, up slightly from July’s 39,264 sales. (Numbers aren’t finalized immediately when the month ends, so August’s numbers might increase.) As always, the most popular word in sold domains was “online”. That was followed closely by “home”. Health, media, blog, design, and free were also popular keywords. Most sales were through auctions, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NoktaDomains domain name sales and leases from final month - Company sold 29 domains and made five leases that are public. I always find NoktaDomains’ monthly sales lists interesting. It gives insight into a mid-sized domain portfolio owner and it also shows the types of domain names it’s leasing rather than selling. (The leases are obviously driven by the buyer’s ability to pay.) Here are Nokta’s sales from last month: pccleaners.com 13,500 okuyucu.com 8,265 multicooker.com 6,500 nymoving.com 4,200 astroclub.com 3,655 8fx.com ... read more ...
Mon 2nd September 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Owner of Corediagnostics.in Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - M/s. Core Diagnostics filed UDRP against domain name registered a decade before it was founded. World Intellectual Property Organization panelist Richard Hill has found M/s. Core Diagnostics, owner of CoreDiagnostics.in, guilty of attempting reverse domain name hijacking. The Indian company started its business in 2011 and registered its trademarks in 2012. Still, it filed a UDRP against the owner of corediagnostics.com, who registered the domain name in 2001. The ... read more ...
Sat 31st August 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
17 new tip turn domain registry contracts signed - Finally some progress for new TLD applicants, but it’s slow. ICANN has updated its statistics through yesterday for the number of new top level domain contracts it has signed. It signed 13 contracts this past week. 12 of those were signed by Donuts, which leaves just one other company signing an agreement this week. (Unless some of the contracts Donuts signed haven’t been fully executed.) Given that eleven of the contracts Donuts signed this week are not IDNs, ... read more ...
Fri 30th August 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain parking: reduction is more? - SmartName drops most templates to focus on the best performing ones. It used to be that domain name parking companies bragged about how many templates they had. The templates had different ad locations, fonts, and most importantly, graphics related to the domain name’s topic. Which is why I find a recent move by SmartName/Afternic interesting. The company is dropping many of its templates and will stick with just five (see graphic). In a notice sent to clients, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google employing for new tip turn domain name initiative - Google is looking for a couple people to work on its top level domain name program. Google has posted two job openings related to its new top level domain name plans. The company is seeking both a Product Marketing Manager, Domains and a Strategic Partner Manager, gTLD program. Here’s the description for the Strategic Partner Manager: Google is launching a domain registry and we are looking for people that are excited about building this new business for Google. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Lawsuit opposite new TLD applicant Famous Four is dismissed - Lawsuit was filed over plans for .bim top level domain, which never got off the ground. A group of investors in a failed top level domain bid have dropped their lawsuit against Famous Four Media, Domain Venture Partners, and some of the company’s principals. David Ways and a handful of his friends and family said they paid nearly $123,000 to the defendants to get the .bim top level domain name off the ground. Ways alleged that he was promised that he would become ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN finally signs some-more new TLD contracts; Donuts signs a dozen - A dozen Donuts as ICANN finally starts inking more registry agreements. Since ICANN signed four new top level domain registry contracts at its meeting in Durban in mid-July, no more have been signed. Until now. Donuts is reporting that it has signed a dozen (hopefully glazed) more registry contracts with ICANN. It signed one for 游戏, Chinese for “Game”, at the Durban meeting. The contracts cover .bike, .camera, .clothing, .equipment, .estate, .guru, .holdings, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sina tops Tencent in conflict over Weibo tip turn domain names - Panel handles tricky case involving what many consider a generic term. In a heavyweight battle of Chinese internet stars, Sina Corporation has won two objections it lodged against Tencent for the top level domain names .微博 and .weibo. Sina and Tencent were the only applicants for .weibo and .微博, so the contention set has been settled. I’m not so sure about the outcome of these Legal Rights Objections. But my feelings echo dissenting panelist Matthew Harris, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
For The Limited, “The” comes behind to haunt it in another domain case - The brand is The Limited, not Limited. There were many reasons that new TLD applicant Donuts prevailed in a legal rights objection filed by fashion retailer Limited over .limited. One of those was that “The” is a big part of the The Limited brand. “The Limited” does not equal “Limited”. This topic has come up again in a UDRP that Limited Stores filed against the owner of LimitedCoupon.com. In determining if LimitedCoupon.com is confusingly similar to a ... read more ...
Thu 29th August 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Analyzing new TLD fibre conflict panelists - A breakdown of panelists’ decisions and what went wrong. I’ve called String Confusion Objections a clusterf@ck based on seemingly conflicting opinions by different panelists. It’s clear that which panelist is assigned to a case has a lot to do with the outcome, which is a sign of a poorly designed system. Whether it’s ICANN’s fault or International Centre for Dispute Resolution’s fault is up for debate, although I’ll point out ICANN gave very little ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What is this new domain name scam? - I think I know, but feel free to dig in some more. I just received a scam phone call and I’m trying to figure out what the perpetrator’s goal is. I have an idea, but I figure some readers might know more. The caller said he was with “an independent agency with I-C-A-N-N”. He didn’t say “I-CAN”, he actually said each letter separately. He then said that it was necessary to verify the information associated with domain names once a year. He asked if I ... read more ...