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 22nd August 2013
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String Confusions Gone Wild: Amazon IDN is found identical to opposite word in English - “Online Shopping” in Japanese is too similar to .shop in English, panelist rules. Some new top level domain name string confusions objection decisions have been baffling. A difference in opinion on .cam vs. .com. Plurals vs. Singulars. But now string confusions have officially gone off the deep end. A panelist has found that Amazon.com’s application for .通販, which is Japanese for “Online Shopping”, is too similar to .shop. Commercial Connect, which ... read more ...
 
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Clicky: Do yourself a preference and buy a right domain name - Analytics company learned its lesson but ended up with the “right” domain name. A Domain Name Wire reader alerted me to a blog post from web analytics service Clicky that it penned when it changed its domain name back in December. (Yes, it was back in December, but it doesn’t seem that anyone in the domain world picked up on it.) For six year Clicky went by the name Clicky but its domain name was GetClicky.com. In December it bought the Clicky.com domain name ... read more ...
 
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DomainNameSales.com announces new hybrid domain name brokering approach - You can handle your fresh leads and they’ll take your stale ones. A common complaint about domain name marketplaces is that your parked domain names are generated all of their leads. Why should you pay the marketplace when someone first expresses interest by clicking a link on your parked domain name? Frank Schilling’s DomainNameSales.com announced a new brokerage service today that is the best of both worlds for those that want first crack at selling their own ... read more ...
Wed 21st August 2013
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What domains Johnson & Johnson and Cerner bought final week - Two health related companies, Johnson Johnson and Cerner, were among end user domain buyers last week at Sedo. Many of Sedo’s big sales from last week are still in escrow, so this week’s list might seem a little light. Overall Sedo sold 693 domain names for a total of about $1 million last week. Powerleague Fives Ltd, a soccer league organizer, bought PowerPlay.co.uk for 3,500 GBP. Connect Hygiene Products, part of Northwood Paper, bought Northwood.co.uk for ... read more ...
 
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Seiko wins UDRP for 138 domains opposite 106 “respondents” - Panel consolidates claim on basis that 106 respondents are actually just one group. Watchmaker Seiko has won a UDRP covering 138 domain names that include “seiko” in them. The number of domain names would make this case interesting enough. Making it more interesting is that there are technically 106 respondents to the UDRP. UDRP’s can only be filed against a single domain name owner. Multiple owners can’t be consolidated into one case. But Seiko argued that ... read more ...
 
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Billionaire pays $2,395 for his domain name - Billionaire hedge fund chairman buys his name as a domain name. Afternic had a solid sales week last week thanks to a $500,000 domain name sale (the name was not disclosed). A billionaire – technically his hedge fund – spent a lot less than that on his personal name. Billionaire Bruce Kovner, chair of one of the world’s largest hedge funds, Caxton Associates, paid $2,395 for BruceKovner.com. Here are other end user domain purchases at Afternic last week. (A ... read more ...
Tue 20th August 2013
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ICANN needs to chuck TLD field a bone on name collisions - If delays are necessary, ICANN should pitch in for monitoring and notification system. A couple weeks ago new top level domain name applicants received some very unwelcome news: many of their TLDs could be significantly delayed due to security concerns about “name collisions”. Basically, some private networks already ping non-existent top level domain names that applicants have applied for. This leads to so-called name collisions. ICANN should have undertaken ... read more ...
 
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TLDH walked divided from auction with 2 strings and cash - New top level domain applicant settles contention sets and walks away with more cash than it spent. Top Level Domain Holdings (TLDH) was initially opposed to the private auction model to settle top level domain name contention sets. That changed, and last week it probably felt validated by its decision. The company participated in four top level domain name auctions. It won two of them, and the net cash it received from the two losses was more than enough to pay for ... read more ...
 
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Is this GoDaddy’s new slogan? - Company files two intent-to-use trademark applications. Domain name registrar GoDaddy has filed two intent-to-use trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, possibly tipping off slogans it plans to use in the future. Application 86,038,967 is for “Name It. Make It. Own It.” This seems to jive with the company’s mission to help people get their business off the ground with web services. Application 86,038,961 is for the much more generic ... read more ...
 
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Partnership leads to merger by GoDaddy - After integrating Locu into web site building product, GoDaddy buys the whole company. I took yesterday afternoon off to spend with my daughter before school starts again on Wednesday. As we hung out I scanned my tweet stream and saw something about GoDaddy and Locu. No biggie, I thought. I’ve already written about their partnership. It wasn’t until last evening that I saw that it wasn’t about the partnership — GoDaddy announced it acquired Locu. Locu helps ... read more ...
 
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Who owns a domain names ICANN Labs is using? - ICANN Labs is rolling out experimental websites, but it isn’t the registrant of the domain names it’s using. ICANN Labs is ICANN’s attempt to introduce innovation in four areas: discovery, conversation, communication, and education. ICANN has partnered with web developer/product designer Neo on the venture. Regardless of whether this ends up being a fruitful venture, you can be sure that any domain names used for ICANN Labs will be registered with best practices. Or ... read more ...
Mon 19th August 2013
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Domain Capital lends $150,000 to SearchCore - Domain name and website investment firm borrows $150k from domain name financing company. SearchCore, Inc. has borrowed $150,000 from Domain Capital, a regulatory filing with the SEC discloses. The company put seven domains names up as collateral for the deal: manufacturedhome.com, manufacturedhomes.com, manufacturedhouse.com, manufacturedhomes.net, modularhomes.com, traveltrailer.com, and toyhaulers.com. SearchCore has paid a combined $417,000 to acquire these domain ... read more ...
 
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Land Rover found guilty of RDNH in sardonic cybersquatting decision - Panelist rips apart Land Rover. Land Rover has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in a UDRP case it brought against a Montana dealer of old school Land Rovers that uses the domain MountainRovers.com. This is despite the car dealer not responding to the UDRP. Even more noteworthy is the scathing critique panelist Houston Putnam Lowry had for Land Rover. Lowry determined that Land Rover didn’t meet any of the three necessary requirements to win a ... read more ...
 
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Marchex releases prejudiced list of Q2 domain sales - BMW among companies that bought domain names from Marchex last quarter. Marchex, which is spinning off its domain name business Archeo sometime later this year or early next year, today released a partial list of the domain names it sold last quarter. Along with its second quarter earnings release earlier this month, the company reported that it sold 70 domains for approximately $1.3 million. Last quarter it listed the top sales for the quarter, but this time it is ... read more ...
 
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.Academy, .Blue and .Bio new TLD objections denied - WIPO denies three more challenges to new top level domain names. World Intellectual Property Organization panels have denied three more top level domain name Legal Rights Objections. All of the objections were filed against strings that are not in contention sets. .Academy – Academy Sports + Outdoors filed this objection against Donuts. A number of brands have challenged Donuts over its domains including .coach, .limited, and .express. All have failed. This sums ... read more ...
 
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Uh-Oh: String likeness panels remonstrate on .cam vs. .com - One panelist dings .cam while two others say it’s OK. ICANN’s string similarity objections are about to face a big challenge. Demand Media subsidiary United TLD has lost an objection brought by Verisign against United TLD’s .cam domain name application. But two other applicants, AC Webconnecting BV and dotAgency Limited, have prevailed against Verisign’s challenges. If the rules for string similarity are written well enough, how can panelists disagree on the ... read more ...
Fri 16th August 2013
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ICANN strictly kills Google’s devise for dotless Search tip turn domain name - Board resolution quashes dotless domains again, at least for now. ICANN’s New gTLD Program Committee has passed a resolution confirming a prohibition on so-called dotless domain names, effectively killing Google’s plans for a dotless .search top level domain name. A dotless top level domain name would resolve without a dot. For example, while something.example will resolve in most browsers, http://example will not. Google had hoped to use “search” as a dotless ... read more ...
 
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Two weeks of finish user domain sales during Sedo - GE, MLB, and La Quinta make domain name purchases. I’m still playing catch up with end user domain sales reports. I combined the last two weeks of Sedo sale into one report. Big name buyers include GE and Major League Baseball. The Almond Board of California picked up Almonds.co.uk for $15,000. GE paid $1,177 for OxygenNow.com. It’s possible GE is also behind Sedo’s top purchase from a couple weeks ago, $30,000 for WaterTreatment.com. The domain was registered ... read more ...
 
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Here’s Del Monte’s WEIRD lawsuit to overturn .delmonte decision - Del Monte International uses cybersquatting and UDRP rules in attempt to overturn .delmonte objection. Yesterday I wrote about Del Monte International (DMI) Gmbh’s lawsuit against Del Monte Corporation (DMC) after the latter won its objection to the former’s application for the .delmonte top level domain. The court has now published the complaint (pdf). On the surface, I understand the complaint. DMI is trying to argue that the World Intellectual Property Organization ... read more ...
 
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What domains a Vancouver Canucks and 19 others bought final week - The Canucks make an offseason transaction and other end user domain name sales. Afternic sold $1.1 million worth of domain names last week. Here are some of the end user sales. A Marksmen client – perhaps the ITT spinoff called xylem – bought xylem.com for $47,100. Talmer Bank and Trust in Michigan bought the shorthand domain TLMR.com for $3,988. Atlantic Health System paid $1,195 for WarrenPrimaryCare.com. Lake Systems Corporation in Mikwaukee bought LakeSystems.com ... read more ...
 
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A month after initial 4 TLD contracts signed, still usually 4 signed - There’s been a delay (surprise!) after the first four TLD contracts were signed. ICANN took advantage of its public meeting in Durban, South Africa last month for a public signing of the first four top level domain name contracts. It’s been a full month since then, and no one else has signed a contract yet. ICANN has just published a new statistics page to track the progress of registry signings. Although only four have signed so far, it looks like a lot more ... read more ...
Thu 15th August 2013
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Grand Theft Auto creator files censure opposite GTA.tv - Take-Two Interactive asks World Intellectual Property Forum to order transfer of GTA.tv. Is this a case of grand theft or a legitimate intellectual property claim? Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc, maker of the popular Grand Theft Auto video game series, has filed a dispute against the owner of GTA.tv claiming the domain is cybersquatted. The current registrant, iCity Corp, registered the domain name in 2010. Neither Archive.org nor Screenshots.com have captured ... read more ...
 
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AYI.com sole for (what was) $100,000 in stock - Snap Interactive bought the domain name in January in an all-stock transaction. Snap Interactive Inc., which owns dating social network Are You Interested, acquired the domain name AYI.com in January for 100,000 shares of common stock. At the time, the 100,000 shares of Snap Interactive (OBB:STVI) had a fair value of $100,000. The stock is down 15% today after the company announced earnings yesterday, so shares are only worth 76 cents. If the seller of the domain ... read more ...
 
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Del Monte sues after .DelMonte TLD conflict decision - After losing top level domain objection, Del Monte International GmbH files suit. Is this the first lawsuit over a top level domain name Legal Rights Objection? Del Monte International GmbH has sued Del Monte Corporation in U.S. District Court in California in a trademark infringement case (case 2:13-cv-05912-RSWL-MAN). Although the actual complaint hasn’t been posted to the court’s website yet, the dispute is clearly related to the plaintiff’s application for ... read more ...
 
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Beat.la gets about 100k pageviews in dual weeks - Just a couple weeks after buying the domain, the Phoenix Suns’ Beat.la website has received a lot of traffic. Is Beat.la the most trafficked .la domain name that takes advantage of the “Los Angeles” meaning? On July 31 I noticed that the Phoenix Suns basketball team bought the beat.la domain name for $5,300 at Sedo. The team is using it promote a rivalry with the L.A. Lakers. The next week the L.A. Times picked up on the story citing Domain Name Wire. That resulted ... read more ...