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 16th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Trademark Clearinghouse Tops 5,000 submissions - Trademark protection service for new top level domains releases statistics. The Trademark Clearinghouse for new top level domains has received 5,000 submissions, the group announced today. 44% of the submissions have come from the United States. 10% are from France, 7% from the United Kingdom, and 4% from Germany. The top category of submissions so far are for “scientific or teaching apparatus” with 23%. That includes a wide range of products, from medical equipment ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy tests new lander for lapsed domain names - GoDaddy drops PPC ads on expired domains in favor of auction promotion. A domain name registrar typically parks a domain when it expires. The expired domain parked page usually notifies visitors that the domain is expired and up for auction with a fairly subtle notice toward the top of the page. It appears GoDaddy is trying something different. Check out the landing page you see if you visit 5sg.com, which recently expired and is up for auction at GoDaddy: Gone are ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN launches ICANN Labs - Group that runs domain name system creates ICANN Labs to help improve communication and engagement. You’re not a cool tech company unless you have a “labs” group. Apparently you’re not a cool tech non-profit if you don’t have one, either. ICANN has launched ICANN Labs, a new initiative to increase participation and engagement in the ICANN process. ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé explains ICANN Labs: The success of ICANN’s multi-stakeholder model hinges on bottom-up, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign downgrades sponsorship of ICANN meetings - After peaking in 2011 meeting, Verisign’s sponsorship of ICANN meetings has steadily dropped. Thinks there’s a lot of bad blood between Verisign and ICANN right now? That may be why Verisign isn’t sponsoring the Durban meeting at as high of a level as it has sponsored previous meetings. The Durban meeting offers six sponsorship levels, ranging from Bronze ($7,500) to Diamond ($250,000). For this meeting, Verisign sponsored at the $15,000 Silver level. Let’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy triples space in Sunnyvale, now over 80 employees in Silicon Valley - Domain name registrar leases 40,000 square feet in key Silicon Valley location. GoDaddy is opening a new office in Sunnyvale, California as it rapidly increases its headcount in the area. The new 40,000 square foot office more than triples the company’s current space in the city. 40 GoDaddy employees were in Silicon Valley as of February, and the press release about the expansion says that number has “more than doubled” since then. The space is in Moffett Towers ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Just like Express, The Limited loses .Limited new tip turn domain objection - Donuts has scored its second victory against a large fashion brand. The company has successfully defended itself in a Legal Rights Objection brought by Limited Stores, LLC for the top level domain .Limited. It recently won a case brought by Express for .express as well. The .limited case was determined by Robert A. Badgley, who was not the same panelist for the .express objection. Donuts’ application for the .limited domain claims that likely registrants will include ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Healthcare association spends $50,000 on .org domain name for sanatorium chain - Tucows sells AHN.org for $50,000 to hospital system. Healthcare provider and insurance company Highmark spent $50,000 for the AHN.org domain name, topping Afternic’s list of reportable sales for last week. The domain name is the acronym for Allegheny Health Network, which Highmark announced in April as the new name for a Pittsburgh hospital system anchored by West Penn Allegheny. The health insurer bid $1.1 billion to buy the West Penn Allegheny Health System. Tucows ... read more ...
Mon 15th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google enormous down on wily behind symbol actions - Some sites show a parked page-style lander when you hit the back button. Google published a blog post on Friday about its efforts to crack down on manipulative or deceptive behavior of websites. It details something that some websites have apparently started doing recently, which it will crack down on by possibly removing sites from its index. Say you search for “cartoon” on Google, and go to a site about cartoons. If you hit the back button, instead of going ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Did SeaWorld register domain names to opposite Blackfish movie? - Defensive domains related to new killer whale documentary registered. A documentary about a killer whale that killed a SeaWorld trainer is gaining broad exposure after it premiered at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. “Blackfish” has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures for wider release, and will be in UK and Irish cinemas later this month. Did SeaWorld just prepare its online defense? A Mark Monitor client has registered the domain names BlackfishFacts.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Four new tip turn domain name contracts signed - Four IDN top level domains backers sign contracts with ICANN. Yesterday Domain Name Wire reported about dotShabaka Registry signing the first registry agreement for a new TLD with ICANN for شبكة. Today ICANN held a signing ceremony during its meeting in Durban, South Africa, with dotShabaka and three additional top level domain names: Core Association’s онлайн, Russian for “Online”, and сайт, Russian for “Web site” Donuts’ 游戏, Chinese ... read more ...
 
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Q&A with Matt Mazur, who only sole his domain name hunt association to Automattic - Lean Domain Search founder Matt Mazur explains why he sold his business to Automattic. Automattic, the company behind WordPress, has acquired domain name discovery company Lean Domain Search. I’ve written extensively about this company over the past year, as it was one of the best tools on the market for finding available domain names. I reached out to Lean Domain Search founder Matt Mazur today to learn more about the acquisition. DNW: Now that Lean Domain Search ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Introducing a new and softened Domain Name Wire - Domain Name Wire gets a clean and responsive design. Notice something new at Domain Name Wire today? Like, the entire site? I’m very excited to launch the new look of Domain Name Wire. It’s been a very long process, but I’m happy with the result. I think you’ll find the new look a lot cleaner and easier to consume. The most important new feature is that it’s a fully responsive design, meaning you can easily view the site on your desktop, tablet, or mobile ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
First 5 domain name registrars pointer 2013 RAA - Five domain name registrars, including GoDaddy, signed the new registrar accreditation agreement today. Five domain name registrars signed the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) during a signing ceremony at ICANN’s meeting in Durban today. The group was headlined by GoDaddy, which registers about half of all new domain names. The 2013 RAA places significant new requirements on domain registrars, including validating registrant information and retaining ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NAF panels reject UDRP claims on Rive.com, GoodTherapy.com and AspenHeights.com - Three domains, including a four letter .com, saved in UDRPs. National Arbitration Forum has published three recent decisions in favor of respondents. Although none of them resulted in findings of reverse domain name hijacking, some of the complaints had serious deficiencies. In Rive.com, the domain owner registered the domain 2004, well before the complainant had any rights in the mark. In the panelists’ words, the complainant also argued that since the respondent ... read more ...
Sun 14th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
First new TLD agreement signed - Arabic language top level domain is first to sign contract with ICANN. In a major milestone for ICANN’s new top level domain program, the first agreement between ICANN and an applicant to run a new TLD has been signed. dotShabaka Registry inked the deal for شبكة, which had a priority number of three in ICANN’s prioritization system. The Arabic language domain name roughly translates to “web” or “network” in English. Arabic speakers will be able to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign reconfirms IDN transliteration plans, provides some-more details - Verisign provides some details on how it will allocate top level domain transliterations. Have you ever invested a lot of money in something without a written contract? It can be a bit nerve racking, and occasionally you can feel like you got burned. That’s why internationalized domain name (IDN) investors are feeling a better after Verisign provided more details about its plans for transliterations of .net and .com domain names. At a high level, there’s nothing ... read more ...
Fri 12th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain upgrades and other finish user domain sales during Afternic - A company upgraded for .net to .com for just $1,000 and other end user sales at Afternic. Last week was a slow week at Afternic thanks to the U.S. Independence Day holiday, but the company still managed to sell almost $700,000 worth of domains. Here are some of the end user sales. Easysmart Technology Limited in Shenzhen, China bought EasySmart.com for $3,088. Online advertising company CPX Interactive bought CompleteInteractive.com for $1,488. Publisher Swift Communications ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Overus.com box provides singular glance into UDRP complaint - Losing complainant posts all documents online, including price negotiations. When Domain Name Wire reports on UDRP decisions, usually all we have is the panelist’s write-up of the decision. This typically includes the panelist’s summary of each party’s case, but not the entire written complaint and response. In the case of Overus.com, which the respondent just won, the complainant actually posted the full complaint online — including evidence he submitted ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Amazon picked adult domain names for new Jet City Comics impress in March - Company hand registered one domain and acquired the other. Amazon.com’s publishing division acquired the domains for its new Jet City Comics imprint in March. Symposium is one of the first releases under the imprint.Amazon.com announced its new Jet City Comics imprint today. The imprint features works by Hugh Howey, George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones), Neal Stephenson, and Christian Cameron. Amazon.com hand registered the JetCityComic.com domain name in March. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
5 ways Express can solve the .Express concerns - Despite losing objection, Express still has plenty of ways to tackle the .express top level domain. American clothing retailer Express (NYSE: EXPR), which has a market cap of close to $2 billion, has lost its Legal Rights Objection against Donuts over the top level domain .express. Kevin Murphy has a good write-up explaining the decision. Express has also applied for the .express top level domain. That means it has many options to resolve its concerns about brand ... read more ...
Thu 11th July 2013
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True Value sues after losing UDRP - Hardware cooperative files lawsuit in second attempt to get domain name TrueValueWeb.com. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. This Monday I wrote about how United Press International filed a lawsuit after losing a UDRP complaint. Now True Value Company, which also recently lost a UDRP complaint, has done the same thing. The UDRP was for TrueValueWeb.com. As I wrote in my article covering the UDRP last month, True Value made some rather questionable arguments ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy’s offline selling of .LA in Los Angeles - Old school advertising to promote the .la domain name. GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving tweeted a photo of a .LA billboard in Los Angeles yesterday (see photo). As more “local” domains come to the internet, this type of targeted offline advertising will become more common. GoDaddy already does a lot of TV and promotional advertising and is probably good and tracking results from campaigns like these billboards. I had someone in Los Angeles check a couple times to see ... read more ...
Wed 10th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
18 finish user sales from $750 to $17,500 - Four letter domain sells to end user for $17,500. Sedo sold $1.04 million worth of domains last week despite the U.S. holiday. Here are some of the end user domain sales. A company called Information Resources Online, which owns IRO.com, bought ORIO.com for $17,500. NIBC Bank N.V. paid 10,000 GBP for Dubank.com. Veda Advantage Limited, a credit risk company, bought FreeCreditScore.com.au for $2,500 USD. Career Cafe Ltd paid 1,500 GBP for 360degrees.co.uk. Spraying ... read more ...
Tue 9th July 2013
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Ammar Kubba explains Aftermarket.com’s new Park & Sell - Aftermarket.com offers new domain parking program integrated with sales platform. Last month Aftermarket.com, a Thought Convergence company, launched its new Park Sell program. Clients can park their domains with Aftermarket and integrate them into its domain name sales platform. I reached out to Thought Convergence CEO Ammar Kubba to learn more about the new offering. DNW: Will TrafficZ, Thought Convergence’s existing domain parking platform, remain a separate ... read more ...
Mon 8th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
World Congress skeleton 2nd annual gTLD Summit - New TLD event to focus on legal aspects of new top level domain names. Conference organizer World Congress is planning its 2nd Annual Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Names Summit for this September. The one day event will take place September 25 at the Affinia in New York City. It is targeted to intellectual property professionals and brand managers. The agenda is still in the works, but much of it will focus on brand protection as well as strategies to roll out ... read more ...