Author Archives: The Domains

About The Domains

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 5K domain names . Michael is also a Director of RightoftheDot.com which is a consultant in the new gTLD space and a broker of super premium domains. Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest this year.

Wed 9th April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
According to one start adult they indispensable to pierce to a .com - There has been a lot of discussion about start ups embracing the new gtlds, it was the choices they needed, that they want to keep their original company name and not have to change just to get the .com. I believe that is true for some, and they will embrace it. There are still many that believe .com is where it’s at. Today we get another example that will make the .com only camp happy, Moot has rebranded itself to Muut. The company did a post on their blog discussing the transition and it was ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
BitCoin Mining Maybe Slowing Down and a First BitCoin ATM Comes To Capitol Hill - According to an article on Business Insider, BitCoin mining is slowing down. From the article: Dan Murtha, co-founder of MinerSource.net, a bulk buyer and distributor of mining hardware, KnC’s announcement is a sign Bitcoin mining rig power may be plateauing. But for Murtha, it’s clear there’s not much more room to go in terms of engineering ultra-small — and therefore ultra-powerful — computer chips, despite the incredible leaps Bitcoin mining engineers have made to this point. It’s ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Uniregistry Statement On Pre-Registrations Of Its New gTLD’s - Uniregistry placed a statement on its site last night about Pre-Registrations clarifying that Uniregistry doesn’t offer them: “””Over the next year, Uniregistry will be rolling out new top-level domains at a steady pace. We are truly excited by the interest in our domain names, and we know that many of our current and future customers share this excitement. Many times, however, the excitement over new domains leads to disappointment, as registrants who have “pre-registered” their favorite ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Go Daddy/Afternic Sells $2million in domains for a week - GoDaddy and Afternic’s reportable weekly domain sales for the week of 3/31/14 – 4/6/14. Total domain sales for the week summed to $2,042,237 The top sale was TailLights.com at $39,200, the domain was registered in 2001 and currently does not resolve. For .us fans Taillights.us dropped and is currently available. Awesome.de sold for $10,000 and was the top non – com sale. In thee it matters what the buyer needs department, there was a NNN.net (934.net $1200) sale that sold for only $50 more ... read more ...
Tue 8th April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Gab.com Sells For $200K on Sedo - The domain name Gab.com just crossed the Sedo sales wire as being sold for $200,002 on Sedo.com The domain name is now in escrow at Sedo. However the domain is already resolving and looks like the new owner has big plans for the domain A few years ago the domain was the site for the Greater Atlantic Bank but the domain seems to have changed hands a few times in the last couple of years. We congratulate the buyer and seller. Nice name Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Uniregistry Gets 300+ Sunrise .Gift Registrations As J&J Goes In Heavy But Don’t Buy Me These - Uniregistry’s new gTLD .Gift has over 300 Sunrise applications which is pretty impressive as Johnson Johnson went in pretty heavy to protect many of their products in an extension not usually associated with “gifts”. Here are some of the more interesting .Gift Sunrise domain registrations: acclarent.gift actifed.gift acuvue.gift amazon.gift anthropologie.gift arizonastate.gift arizonastateuniversity.gift asp.gift audible.gift autozone.gift aveeno.gift babycenter.gift babycentre.gift baignoire.gift ballonbleu.gift band-aid.gift bandaid.gift baumeandmercier.gift bebe.gift benadryl.gift benadryl.gift bengay.gift benylin.gift biafine.gift biosensewebster.gift bmw.gift booking.gift cabochon.gift cada.gift calibredecartier.gift cam4.gift canvasprint.gift captivedecartier.gift carefree.gift careinspirescare.gift caressedorchidees.gift cartierdamour.gift cartierdelune.gift cartiernaturellement.gift celebrations.gift chanel.gift choo.gift chopard.gift chrome.gift cilag.gift classima.gift cleanandclear.gift clifton.gift cordis.gift davinci.gift daymatic.gift declaration.gift depuy.gift desitin.gift diamantslegers.gift discount.gift dollarshaveclub.gift doublesplit.gift doublesplit.gift dunhill.gift entrepreneur.gift f-1.gift f1grandprix.gift f1racing.gift f1racing.gift fire.gift formula1.gift goldcrown.gift goyard.gift guitar-center.gift guitarcenter.gift hallmark.gift hallmarkcards.gift hallmarkgoldcrown.gift hampton.gift happybirthday.gift healthsimple.gift hilfiger.gift holiday.gift home.gift imodium.gift industrie.gift intuit.gift jackdaniels.gift jaeger-lecoultre.gift jaeger-lecoultre.gift jandj.gift jimmychoo.gift jnj.gift johnson-johnson.gift johnsonandjohnson.gift johnsons.gift johnsonsbaby.gift johnsonskids.gift k-y.gift lactaid.gift lancel.gift lange.gift lego.gift lifescan.gift linea.gift listerine.gift lubriderm.gift luxury.gift markmonitor.gift merck.gift microsoft.gift mini.gift mitek.gift mobile.gift monticello.gift neosporin.gift neutrogena.gift next.gift nicoderm.gift nicorette.gift nomoretears.gift online.gift overseas.gift own.gift panerai.gift pasha.gift pashadecartier.gift patrimony.gift pepcid.gift photo.gift polo.gift polysporin.gift portofino.gift qvc.gift ralphlauren.gift reverso.gift roc.gift rogaine.gift rogerdubuis.gift samsung.gift santos.gift saxonia.gift sinutab.gift southerncomfort.gift splenda.gift standard.gift standardbank.gift starwalker.gift statefarm.gift statefarmbank.gift sudafed.gift summit.gift tank.gift tiffany.gift toledo.gift tommy.gift topgun.gift trinity.gift tucks.gift tudor.gift tylenol.gift vacheronconstantin.gift vanguard.gift vente-privee.gift vente-privee.gift visa.gift visine.gift winner.gift zappos.gift zyrtec.gift If ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
150 NNN.Asia Domains Hits NameJet.com Including 888.Asia & 777.Asia - Namejet.com just started a  featured auction of 150 NNN.Asia domain names. The domain names can currently be backordered on NameJet.com The domain name auctions close between May 1st and May 4th As we all know buyers in China love numbered domain names and I would expect a lot of these to sell with minimum bids set at $69. Most of these domain are being offered to the public for the first time by .ASIA and Right Of The Dot There are more than 500,000 .ASIA names already registered to date. In addition, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ID.me Raises Another $10 Million In Funding - According to a press release just out, “ID.me, Inc., a 2013 WSJ “Startup of the Year” finalist and leader in the digital identity space, completed a Series A fundraising round of $10 million led by USAA, Silicon Valley Bank, and notable angel investors including David Tisch’s Box Group, Kelly Perdew, K Street Capital, and Blu Venture Investors. The D.C.-based technology startup will use the capital – consisting of $7.5 million in equity and $2.5 million in venture debt – for marketing ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Tokyo To Go Live Jul 22nd & Anyone In The World Can Register One - According to a press release, GMO Internet Group company, GMO Registry, Inc. announced that  the new gTLD .Tokyo will be open for landrush applications starting on June 9th. General Availability will begin July 22nd. Sunrise period for trademark holders is already opened. Unlike some cities like New York’s .NYC, there are no residence or other nexus requirements to register a .Tokyo domain, meaning that anyone in the world can register a .tokyo domain name. “.tokyo is a domain that will represent ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Hilton Buys ChicagoAirportHotel.com For a Whopping $850 - Hilton just bought the domain name ChicagoAirportHotel.com for a whopping $850. The domain name was listed on a Buy It Now basis through Fabulous.com So one of the largest hotel chains in the world just picked up the bang on matching domain for one of the busiest airports in the country for less than $1,000. If you do a Google search for Chicago Airport Hotel you will see Hilton is an advertiser under the term as well as Booking.com and Expedia. Don’t you think Hilton spends more than $850 in ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Company Loses Battle to Get Critical Website Taken Down - There has been a lot of discussion about the coming .sucks new gtld and some of the potential pricing that could potentially come with it. Other extensions coming down the pipeline have gotten less publicity but certainly fall in a similar camp. .Fail,.Exposed,.Gripe and .WTF are all extensions that no company or person really wants to be associated with to the left of the dot. Brands IMO should not participate in regging their names in these extensions. The reason being is you cannot protect against ... read more ...
Mon 7th April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Namejet.com Reports Over $400K in Domain Sales For March - Namejet.com just released over $400,000 in domain names that sold during March on their platform. Only sales of $2k or more are included:   <![CDATA[]]> Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
.Co.com Live Registrations Begin Apr 8th “It’s 1985 Again”™ - The .Co.com registry announced that their registrations go live tomorrow on April 8th Here is the press release: “”The very first .com domain name registration (symbolics.com) took place in March of 1985. Back then, of course, every name was available. Today, with over 113 million registered .com domain names, the very best .com domain names are long gone. Businesses who prefer the familiar .com extension find it difficult, or even impossible, to find short memorable names that are relevant to ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Inbay Limited of London Guilty Of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Inbay Limited of London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (“United Kingdom”), represented by Keystone Law, United Kingdom has been found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) on the domain name inbay.com which was registered back on December 11, 1998. The trademark which inBay Limited of London based their claim on wasn’t filed until 2012. Here are the RDNH findings by the three member panel of Nicholas Smith Nick J. Gardner, and Diane Cabell: This is a Complaint ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google to Launch Android TV – We Already Know They Don’t Own The Domain - According to a story on Mashable, Google is going to launch Android TV. Ten days ago Mike wrote a post about a UDRP that Google filed on AndroidTV.com. The panelists decided that this case was outside the scope of the UDRP. You can read the case and the commentary that Mike added here. March 31, 2014 there was a press release put out highlighting this decision. The press release contact is Mike Berkens who did not pay PR Web for the press release so this looks like it was put out by the registrant. We ... read more ...
Sun 6th April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Uniregistry Reserved & Sunrise .Pics Domains You Won’t Be Able To Register - I went through the zone file for .Pics the next new gTLD of Frank Schilling’s Uniregistry that will go live on April 15th. The registry gets to reserve 100 domain for its own use in the operation and promotion of the registry so far Uniregistry has selected 64 of these which are: <![CDATA[]]>Sunrise registration for .Pics domain names closed on March 28th. Here are some of the more interesting domain registered during that period and will be not be available once general availability opens ... read more ...
Sat 5th April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
USPTO Views The Glass Half Empty When it Comes to Google - There is a lot of buzz around Google and their attempt to trademark the word glass. The Huffington Post and The Daily Mail wrote articles on Google having trouble getting their trademark approved which for the most part they were sourcing the Wall Street Journal article who seemed to be the first to talk about the trouble Google was having with their trademark for glass. Jacob Gersham wrote on the Wall Street Journal: At least one company is opposing Google’s bid. In December, Border Stylo, LLC, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Ebay to Create A Place For Virtual Currencies - Ebay has created a new category for Virtual Currency. People will be able to list crpyto currencies for sale along with mining related activities. It looks like the listings for actual currencies must be done as a classified ad. CoinDesk wrote: eBay’s main US site has introduced a category for ‘Virtual Currency’, with listings for dozens of bitcoin and altcoin-related activities – including shares in mining operations. Although eBay is still not accepting bitcoin as an official payment, ... read more ...
Fri 4th April 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Who Said There Would be No CyberSquatting In New gTLDs? googl.glass, gogle.glass, gooogle.glass Anyone? - Who said there would be no cybersquatting in the new gTLD space? Plenty of Google Glass typos were registered on the 1st day of general availability. Interestingly all of the registrations are public not under privacy leading me to conclude that there are just a lot of new “domainers” who don’t know anything about the laws, rules and restrictions around domain names. The new gTLD domain name goggle.glass was registered by someone in Ohio who used his real name. The domains: googl.glass gogle.glass Where ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
After 1st Days After Registration The new gTLD Experience.Glass Is Suspended By The Registrar - Just noticed that the domain name Experience.Glass which was just registered on April 2nd 2014 under privacy has already been suspended. The registry, Donuts said that they did not suspend the domai,n so it must by the registrar which is in this case Godaddy. The domain name’s whois record was updated on April 3rd to the name severs: Name Server: ns1.suspended-for.spam-and-abuse.com Name Server: ns2.suspended-for.spam-and-abuse.com Believe me if your game is cybersquatting, phishing, spamming or ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: “People Just Are Not Educated On How To Use The Internet” - According to FoxNews.com, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pegged problems with people being able to signup on Healthcare.gov, by saying people just “are not educated on how to use the Internet.” “We have hundreds of thousands of people who tried to sign up and they didn’t get through,” Reid said during a press conference, before describing the difficulties people have with the Internet in general. “There are some people who are not like my grandchildren who can handle everything so ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Heritage Auctions Runs Ad in New York Times - Heritage Auctions who is scheduled to run their second ever domain auction on April 9, took out an ad in the New York Times. Its nice to see Aron Meystedt and HA do the types of things that many domainers have wanted other auction houses to do for years. Spend some money and do mainstream advertising outside the domain industry. This is a nationwide circulation ad, which according to Wikipedia is 1,865,318 as of March 2013. Here is the ad: Actual look at the newspaper: ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Top 25 New gTLD By New Registration Yesterday - Here is a look at the top 25 new gTLD strings based on the number of new registrations yesterday as tracked by RegistrarStats.com: <![CDATA[]]> Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
National Public Radio Covers The New gTLD’s - Several new gTLD applicants were interviewed for a National Public Radio (NPR) News piece out today that covers the new gTLD’s. NPR interviewed the applicant for .Wed as well as Daniel Negari from .XYZ Daniel is quoted as saying “.Com is pretty crowded.” “We end the alphabet ends with XYZ so it makes perfect sense that domain names should end in .XYZ as well. Donuts Dan Schindler was interviewed for the piece as well as Tom Brackey. You can listen to the Segment by clicking here Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Mittal.CEO Suspended After URS; No Site Was Up & Registrants Name Wasn’t Mittal - Hello, I am the Andrew Davis mentioned in this case, whose Domain Name (Mittal.CEO) was suspended. I would like to say, that even if the end result of this case was that I was found in violation of Trademark laws, I have no problem in accepting such a decision. However, I feel that the reasoning used by the Examiner to come to this conclusion, was very one-sided, in favour of the Complainant (ArcelorMittal). As far as I’m aware: “The URS requires a heavier burden of proof by mandating ... read more ...