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 23rd July 2013
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Domain sales watch: CompUSA and CircuitCity domains, and Moniker auction - These domain name sales and auctions are worth watching. With all of the news surrounding last week’s ICANN meeting in Durban, I’m a bit behind on a couple domain auctions and sales that are noteworthy. First, Hilco Streambank is offering the domain names CompUSA.com and CircuitCity.com. Both of the domain names are from defunct technology retailers. Systemax bought the assets of both of these companies last decade. It kept CircuitCity.com as a separate online ... read more ...
 
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Sorting contribution from novella in a Trademark Clearinghouse - [Editors note: The Trademark Clearinghouse is a unique way for brand owners to protect themselves with the introduction of top level domain names. Jan Corstens, a partner at Deloitte (which operates the Trademark Clearinghouse), explains some of the common misconceptions about the service in this guest post.] With upcoming drastic changes to the Internet, including new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) such as .nyc and .boston to .book and .lol – it is crucial that ... read more ...
 
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It’s not unequivocally Walmart: Walmart goes after union’s satire site - Retailer files complaint to take over domain names used for parody site. Walmart has filed a Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) case with World Intellectual Property Organization against domain names registered by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. The dispute seeks to take down the web site ReallyWalmart.org and the associated domain names ReallyWalmart.com/.net/.info. ReallyWalmart.org is a self-described parody site set up ... read more ...
 
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What domain names a U.S. Treasury and 27 others bought final week - A division of the U.S. Department of Treasury was among last week’s domain name buyers. Afternic sold another $1 million+ worth of domain names last week. Here’s a run down of some of the end user domain sales. Forester Media Inc., which published a number of journals related to highly technical fields, bought BusinessEnergy.net for $1,488. eCommerce platform Upclick bought ClickSolve.com for $1,095. UK printing company Solopress bought Soloweb.com for $3,000. Smart ... read more ...
Mon 22nd July 2013
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ICANN Ombudsman LaHatte reappointed to second term - Chris LaHatte appointed to second term. ICANN’s Board of Directors has reappointed Chris LaHatte as Ombudsman to another two year term. The ombudsman serves as an intermediary between ICANN and its constituents on matters related to things done by ICANN, its board, its staff, and constituent bodies. Some of LaHatte’s recent decisions have been about late objections to new top level domains and a complaint by DotAfrica Connect. LaHatte has proven less controversial ... read more ...
 
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Google drops hints in domain name registry heading filing - Trademark application includes domain escrow and domain valuation . Google has filed a trademark application for “Charleston Road Registry”, the name of its subsidiary that is applying for nearly 100 top level domain names. The filing (pdf) may include subtle clues as to what Google’s plans are for domain names such as .fun, .play, and .shop. There are six “goods and services” classifications for Charleston Road Registry. Most of them relate to the technical ... read more ...
 
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Interesting: How Parse.ly got a name, and because it bought a .com - The mind of an entrepreneur naming his business. There have been a couple more mainstream stories lately about how startups are using domain hacks and country code domain names because they can’t find a good .com domain available. Content analytics company Parse.ly has responded by explaining how it originally came up with its name, and when it decided to buy the “matching” .com. It’s a must read for domain name investors because, regardless of whether you ... read more ...
 
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The value of a initial name domain name - How can you calculate the value of a first name .com? DNMedia published a quick look at the value of first name domain names over the weekend. I own one such domain (Cathleen.com), so I found the data interesting. DNMedia took 5,000 common first names and found sales records for 103 of them, ranging from $500 up. It calculated that the typical first name domain name sells for about $.80 to $1.25 times the number of people who have that name in the United States. As ... read more ...
 
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GoDaddy lets business “watch” new TLDs - Domain registrar creates watchlist for new domain names. GoDaddy is now allowing customers to add particular new top level domain names to a “watchlist”. The company’s updated new TLD landing page includes 700 categorized to level domain names. A blog post announcing the new watchlist feature was careful not to call it pre-registration, or even expressions of interest: NOTE: Keep in mind, we might not sell all of the gTLDs listed on the landing page. The “watch” ... read more ...
Fri 19th July 2013
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Marchex sells TheRack.com, substantially to Nordstrom - Mark Monitor group acquires retail domain name. Based on whois records, it appears that Marchex has sold the domain name TheRack.com. My money is on Nordstrom buying it for its Nordstrom Rack outlet stores, sometimes called “The Rack”. Although the whois information for the domain shows Name Advisers Inc. as the owner, Name Advisers is affiliated with brand protection registrar Mark Monitor. Nordstrom uses Mark Monitor for its domain names. So why is this interesting? ... read more ...
 
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ICANN still deliberation IGO protections, though adds deadline to discussions - No acronym protections if IGO protections not resolved by Buenos Aires. One of the Governmental Advisory Committee’s (GAC) requests for new top level domain names is that both the names and acronyms of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) be protected from second level registrations. This is, I imagine, because of the grave damage that would be inflicted on the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts if ECMWF.baseball were to be registered. The GAC’s ... read more ...
 
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Network Solutions recuperating from DDoS - Company faced multiple outtages this week. Network Solutions customers experienced outtages this week due to a DDoS attack. The problems appeared to start on Monday. On Tuesday, Network Solutions reported that “On [Monday], some Network Solutions customer sites were compromised.” Then on Wednesday, the company posted to its Facebook page that it was facing a DDoS “that is impacting our customers as well as the Network Solutions site.” Later on Wednesday it ... read more ...
 
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USPS loses to Amazon.com on .Mail tip turn domain objection - U.S. mail service tried to argue .mail infringed on its rights for “U.S. Mail”. The United States Postal Services’ Legal Rights Objection to Amazon.com’s bid to run the .mail top level domain name has been denied by a World Intellectual Property Organization panelist. The USPS’ objection to all seven applications for .mail was one of the most head-scratching of all objections. The objection was based on trademarks that include the word mail, primarily “U.S. ... read more ...
Thu 18th July 2013
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CREA loses conflict to Afilias’ .MLS new tip turn domain - Competing application loses objection over .mls top level domain name. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has lost its Legal Rights Objection against Afilias’ application to run the .mls domain name. CREA is a competing applicant for the .mls string. It filed two applications for the string, one of which seeks community designation. Afilias tried to challenge CREA’s standing to bring the case since it was relying on a “certification mark”, not a trademark ... read more ...
 
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.Info and .LA auctions finish this morning - Sedo and GoDaddy auctions end today starting at noon EDT. Two top level domain name-specific domain auctions end today. Sedo is auctioning off 50 .info domain names, all with reserve prices under 500 euros. The auction ends at noon EDT today. At the time of posting (10:30 AM PDT) 42 domains have bids and seven domain names have hit their reserves. The top domains so far are: Survival.info 605 EUR Reseller.info 559 EUR Nuts.info 499 EUR Souvenirs.info 499 EUR Grooming.info ... read more ...
 
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Pinterest loses quarrel with Amazon.com over .Pin domain name - Social site loses objection for .pin top level domain name. Social networking site Pinterest has lost an objection it filed with World Intellectual Property Organization over Amazon.com’s bid to get the .pin top level domain name. One of Pinterest’s challenges was showing some sort of rights and secondary meaning in the term “pin”. Amazon.com pointed out that Pinterest has no registered marks for the word pin. It has 63 pending applications to trademark pin, ... read more ...
 
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GAC plays God with a Durban Communiqué - New TLD applicants’ disdain for the GAC must be growing. The Governmental Advisory Committee has released its Durban Communiqué (pdf), summarizing what it did during this week’s meeting in Durban and its advice to ICANN’s board. Even as someone who’s not directly involved with new TLD applications, I have to admit I got angry reading the Communiqué. I think this sums up my reaction: Just who do these guys think they are? It’s almost as if the GAC knows ... read more ...
Wed 17th July 2013
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GoDaddy gets obvious for Geo Domain tool - First patent related to system for generating geo domain names is granted. Back in 2009 GoDaddy released a geo domain tool that allowed you to find domain names specific to a location, e.g. AustinAllergists.com. Last year I reported that GoDaddy filed three patent applications related to the tool. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has now granted a patent to GoDaddy covering the technology. U.S. patent 8,489,746 is titled “Systems for suggesting domain names ... read more ...
 
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Sedo information uncover clever .co aftermarket - Median sales price this year second only to .com. Sedo released a report today with statistics about the .co aftermarket. The report is timed to coincide with the three year anniversary of .co being relaunched as a global generic domain. The results (pdf) look very strong. Since .co’s relaunch, Sedo has been involved with $2.6 million worth of .co domain name sales. For the first half of 2013, the median .co selling price on Sedo was $570. That’s second only to ... read more ...
 
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TLDH: we’ll pointer the initial new TLD contracts by finish of Q1 2014 - New TLD applicants still far from generating revenue. ICANN signed its first registry agreements for new top level domains this week, but a press release from portfolio applicant Top Level Domain Holdings is a reminder that many new TLDs are a long way to fruition. The release states: Top Level Domain Holding anticipates contracts will be signed with ICANN for the first nine uncontested domain applications in which it has an interest before the end of Q1 2014, with ... read more ...
 
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[Updated] After 10 years, Johnson & Johnson goes after Johnsons.com domain name again - A decade after filing a UDRP for Johnsons.com, Johnson Johnson files another UDRP. [Updated]Johnson Johnson has filed a second UDRP for the domain name Johnsons.com, which was registered way back in 1997. [Update] This is not the first time Johnson Johnson has gone after the domain name. It filed a UDRP in 2003 and lost on the grounds that the domain name was not registered in bad faith. Although technically the name of the registrant has changed since early on, ... read more ...
 
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What domains Jerry Bruckheimer, Papa John’s, and 27 others bought final week - Movie and TV producer among end users buying domain names last week. Afternic sold over $1 million worth of domains last week, and many of the sales were to notable buyers. Let’s start of with Highmark, which bought AHN.org for $50,000. I wrote about this sale yesterday. The next four sales are what I’d call “global upgrades”. These are sales where a company already owns the matching ccTLD and bought .com: Ascent Labs Ltd., which uses AscentLabs.ie, bought ... read more ...
 
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Nokta Domains sole 44, leased 7 domain names in June - Company publishes list of June domain name transactions. Domain name seller Nokta Domains closed a total of 51 public transactions in June, according to the company’s blog. It leased 7 domain names and sold 44. The leases range from $10 to $150, which suggests that most lessees wanted to buy the domains, but simply couldn’t afford them even at relatively low prices. The top sale was AltinFiyatlari.com for $17,600. The second highest was BeachVillas.com for $15,000. ... read more ...
 
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PIR: We consider we’ll get 1 million .NGO domain name registrations - .NGO applicant has goal of a million domain registrations. Public Interest Registry (PIR), the registry behind the .org domain and the only applicant for the .NGO top level domain name, has some lofty goals for the domain. PIR CEO Brian Cute thinks they’ll get one million .ngo domain name registrations. Speaking to Computerwoche.de (and translated into English by PIR), Cute said: The critical mass of a successful domain registrar is one million registrations; this ... read more ...
 
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Body.com seller took a loss, and Neustar buys a .com - Body.com sold for a loss, plus the .biz registry buys a .com in this week’s Sedo end user sales roundup. Sedo’s big sales week was led by the $380,000 sale of Body.com. The domain was sold through Sedo’s partnership with GoDaddy. This is the second time Sedo has cashed in selling the domain. In 2009 it sold the domain name for $400,000 on behalf of Live Current Media. It looks like the buyer back then is the seller today, which would be the domain has lost value ... read more ...